Evaluation of the antioxidant and cytoprotective properties of the exotic fruit Annona cherimola Mill. (Annonaceae)

Cherimoya is a tropical and subtropical native exotic fruit which has become an important crop due to its tasty flavor, high pulp content, nutritional value and potential use in folk medicine.In this study the pulp of ripe fruits were extracted using three organic solvents (ethanol, methanol and dimethyl formammide) and analyzed for the total phenols, antioxidants power and cytoprotective activity on lymphocyte tert-butyl hydroperoxide treated. Also, potential antiperoxidative activity of each extract has been performed. Organic extracts from cherimoya pulp had powerful antioxidant and ferric reducing power activities and, among the extracts, the dimethyl formammide one showed the highest scavenging activity towards DPPH, ABTS+, O2− radical and FRAP assay, while the ethanol one showed the highest activity against lipid peroxidation induced by tert-butyl hydroperoxide. Extract protective activities were also evaluated in isolated human peripheral blood lymphocytes exposed to 250 μM tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The results showed that all the extracts could significantly enhance cell survival and clearly decrease the release of lactate dehydrogenase, with data almost superimposable for all the tested samples. Moreover RP-HPLC-DAD-ITMS analysis reveals the presence of flavanols and procyanidins (dimers and trimers). These results highlight cherimoya extracts' strong antioxidant properties, remarkable decrease of lipid peroxidation and cytoprotective effects against strong oxidant, supporting their suitable employment as bioactive elements in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food processing industries.