Phenolic content, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of the edible halophyte Suaeda fruticosa Forssk

• Published in: Food chemistry 2012-05, Vol.132 (2), p.943-947
• Main Authors: Oueslati, Samia, Ksouri, Riadh, Falleh, Hanen, Pichette, André, Abdelly, Chedly, Legault, Jean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-inflammatory capacity; Anticancer ability; Antioxidant activity; Biological and medical sciences; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Phenolics; Suaeda fruticosa
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.11.072

► The first study on the anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of Suaeda fruticosa. ► S. fruticosa extract showed a higher in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant activities. ► This edible and medicinal halophyte displayed an important anti-inflammatory capacity. ► S. fruticosa exhibit an appreciable anticancer activity. ► This halophyte revealed specificity against human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines. Suaeda fruticosa is an edible and medicinal halophyte known for its hypoglycaemic and hypolipidaemic activities. In this study, novel biological activities of the shoot extracts related to their phenolics were investigated. Results showed an appreciable total phenolic (31.8mgGAE/gDW) in shoot extracts. The estimation of antioxidant capacities using oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC method) and a cell based-assay (WS1) of four extracts (hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and water) showed that shoot methanol extract exhibit the highest antioxidant activities. The same extract displayed the utmost anti-inflammatory activity, inhibiting nitric oxide (NO) release, by 66.4% at 160μg/ml in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Besides, the dichloromethane extract showed the highest anticancer activity against human lung carcinoma (A-549) and colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (DLD-1, Caco-2 and HT-29) with specificity against DLD-1 (IC50=10±1μg/ml). These findings demonstrate the remarkable potentiality of this edible halophyte as valuable source of antioxidants which exhibit original and interesting anti-inflammatory and anticancer capacities.