ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Chemometric analysis and quantification of major anti-cancer activity compounds from leaves of soursop (Annona muricata Linn.)

P. Mohitha and Haripriya Shanmugam

Centre for Agricultural Nanotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

E-mail: haripriya.s@tnau.ac.in

Received: 2 November 2022  Accepted: 10 June 2023

Abstract:

Soursop (Annona muricata) is used as an effective phytomedicine for treatment of cancer, and our study focused on chemometric analysis of anti-cancer compounds from leaf phytochemicals extracted with six varying solvents. GC–MS chemoprofiling of leaf extracts from ethyl acetate, ethanol, water, hexane, hexane: isopropanol (3:2) and acetonitrile resulted in identification of 52 phytochemicals. Of which, 12 compounds were reported to have anti-cancer activities. It consists of fatty acid derivatives and sesquiterpenes with higher relative abundance. Caryophyllene, n-hexadecanoic acid, oleic acid, phytols, squalene in ethyl acetate extracts were identified as predominant leaf phytochemicals through HCA. FT-IR analysis confirmed the presence of functional groups like hydroxyl groups, α, β-unsaturated ketones, esters and carboxylic acids stretching vibrations in all leaf extracts. Interestingly, 2ʹ-hydroxy-5ʹ methylchalcone (flavonoid) is reported for the first time using GC–MS and FT-IR techniques. Quantitatively, ethyl acetate leaf extracts recorded the highest concentration of major annonaceous acetogenin, annonacin (5.76 ± 0.002 mg AN g⁻¹ of sample) and flavonoids (31.112 ± 0.5763 mg QE g⁻¹ of sample), both possessing reported anti-cancer activity. In addition, phenolics (14.63 ± 0.34 mg GAE g⁻¹ of sample) and alkaloids (18.11 ± 0.21 mg QN g⁻¹ of leaf sample) of reasonable concentration are also present in ethyl acetate extract. Maximum concentration of total phenolics is from water (21.13 ± 0.23 mg GAE g⁻¹ of sample) and alkaloids from hexane (19.911 ± 0.10 mg QN g⁻¹ of sample) extracts. Chemoprofiling of major marker compounds with anti-cancer activity from leaves of A. muricata could be helpful in developing better formulations for cancer treatment.

Keywords: Soursop; Leaves; Solvent polarity; Annonacin; Anti-cancer activity

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-02922-0

Chemical Papers 77 (10) 6069–6081 (2023)