Phytochemical, anti-microbial activity, and anti-proliferation tests against human cancer-origin cell lines using water and ethanolic extracts of Momordica cochinchinensis (Gac fruit)

Momordica cochinchinensis (Gac fruit) is a perennial tropical fruit which nutritional benefits have drawn significant attention in Southeast Asian countries but are not completely explored in this region. In addition to aril extracts, pulp and seed extracts were the focus of this study in terms of their phytochemical composition, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiproliferative, and wound healing properties. The extracts obtained were aril water extract (AW), pulp water extract (PW) and seed extracts (SW), and its ethanolic counterpart, namely aril extract (AE), pulp extract (PE) and seed extract (SE). Both water and ethanolic extracts of the aril, pulp and seed contain alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, volatile oil and reducing sugars. However, glycosides were only present in water extracts (AW, PW, SW), meanwhile tannins were detected only in SW. The PW exhibited an increased level of total phenolic content (TPC); 0.0215 ± 0.00060 mg GAE/g whereas, total flavonoid content (TFC) was quantitated at 0.083 ± 0.022 mg QE/g FW (TFC), respectively. Apart from that, the PW extract also exhibited potent antibacterial activity, with MIC values between 5 and 20 mg/ml and MBC values between 10 and 20 mg/ml against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. flexneri, and B. cereus. Cancer- origin cell lines MCF7, HepG2, A549, HCT116 and HT29 have been discovered to be most susceptible to AW and PW at 72 hours (h) post-treatment. The concentrations ranged between 1 µg/ml and 10 µg/ml of PE and SW extracts showed positive effects in the wound healing experiment.