BACKGROUND

Natural colorants, including natural pigments, e.g., anthocyanins, carotenoids, and chlorophylls, in novel and attractive food matrixes have become a popular trend. They impart favorite colors to food products and provide significant therapeutic effects. This study is aimed at extracting and identifying some natural pigments from different plant sources and evaluating their ability as antibacterial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities.

METHODS

The anthocyanin-rich extract (ARE) is derived from three natural plant sources: pomegranate peel (), chili pepper fruit (), and flowers. are analyzed for biochemical composition, as well as antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activity, HPLC, DPPH, FRAP, disc diffusion assay, MIC, MTT, VEGFR-2, and caspase-9 assays.

RESULTS

All three extracts had varying total phenolic contents, ranging from 14 to 466 mg GAE/g extract, where was the highest (466 mg GAE/g extract), followed by (180 mg GAE/g extract), and then (14 mg GAE/g extract). The antioxidant activity rose steadily with raising concentration. The ARE of pomegranate peels recorded highest value, followed by flowers and chili pepper fruit. The MTT assay revealed an inhibitory action of the tested extracts on the proliferation of HCT-116, MCF-7, and HepG2 in a concentration-based manner. Gene expression of caspase-9 transcripts was considerably multiplied by the application of ARE of pomegranate peels. All the tested extracts inhibited VEGFR-2, and the inhibition (%) expanded gradually with increasing concentrations, achieving the highest value (80 %) at 10 μg/mL. The ARE of pomegranate peels scored highest antibacterial activity, followed by ARE of chili pepper fruit and flowers. The inhibition zone diameter escalated gradually with rising concentrations of the tested samples.

CONCLUSION

The AREs of the three studied plant sources can be used as multifunctional products with antioxidant, anticancer, and antibacterial activities that are natural, safe, and cheap.