Correlation of Chillies Capsaicinoids Contents with their Cytotoxic Effects against Hepatocarcinoma Cells.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Chillies are delicious spices that are used extensively. Capsaicinoids, the major constituents of chillies with reported anti-cancer effects, have been determined with non-specific colorimetric methods. A rapid and reproducible method for extraction and quantification of the major chillies capsaicinoids; capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin (DHC) and nordihydrocapsaicin (n-DHC), was reported, moreover study of their cytotoxic activity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study has covered the extraction of capsaicinoids from red and green-colored chillies followed by their quantification using HPLC-UV method after validation. Furthermore, the correlation of capsaicinoids contents with their in vitro hepatocarcinoma cytotoxicity was represented by Pearson's correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

Capsaicinoids contents are ranged from 1219.88-15098.67 ng mg-1 of Dried Extract (DE). Capsaicin exhibits the lowest IC50 when compared to doxorubicin (9.201±0.91 and 16.1±0.82 μg mL-1, respectively). The exhibited activities of methanol extracts of red and green-colored chillies (IC50 = 20.21±1.72 and 16.02±0.69 μg mL-1, respectively) may attribute to their excessive contents of capsaicinoids (6975.42 and 15098.67 ng mg-1 DE, respectively). Capsaicin and n-DHC contents have a negative correlation with cytotoxic activity.

CONCLUSION

Green-colored chillies were found to be more cytotoxic in comparison with red-colored chillies that may be relative to their high content of capsaicinoids. The present investigation suggests that capsaicinoids contents correlate with cytotoxic activity.