Antioxidant and cytotoxic effects of essential oil, water and ethanol extracts of major Indian spices Azeez Shamina*, Antony Jayesh1, Leela N.K., Anto Ruby John1 Division of Crop Production & Post Harvest Technology, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut-673012, Kerala 1Cancer Research Program, Division of Cancer Research, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thycaud P.O., Thiruvananthapuram-695014, Kerala *Corresponding author's present address: Division of Post Harvest Technology, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka; E-mail: shamina@iihr.res.in
Online published on 10 August, 2016. Abstract Essential oils, water and ethanol extracts of black pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, Garcinia indica, G. gummi-gutta, tamarind and curry leaves were examined for their antioxidant potential and cytotoxicity to cancer cell lines by in vitro methods. Essential oils of ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and curry leaf were highly cytotoxic, reducing cell viability to 14 to 30% of untreated control; water and ethanol extracts of G. indica, turmeric, cinnamon, tamarind and curry leaf were also cytotoxic, though to a lesser extent (27% to none); ethanol extracts displayed approximately 50% higher cytotoxicity than water extracts. Antioxidant potential of water and ethanol extracts were similar, and decreased after six months of storage in most extracts; most were superior to BHA and BHT. Antioxidant potential of ethanol was also greater than water extracts. Change in essential oil chemoprofile stored at 4°C for a year compared to fresh, most notably t-caryophyllene, is also reported here. Top Keywords Spice, essential oil, antioxidant potential, cytotoxic effect, storage study. Top |