Abstract

BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF PHYTO-CONSTITUENTS OF CITRUS PEEL EXTRACTED BY RECENT EXTRACTION TECHNIQUES: MICROWAVE ASSISTED EXTRACTION (MAE) AND ULTRA-SONIC ASSISTED EXTRACTION (UAE)

Lobna M Abousetta, Heba M Hassanein*, Naglaa M Nazif, Faiza M Hammouda

ABSTRACT

Four varieties of citrus fruits namely Citrus sinensis (Washington), Citrus sinensis (Ibadan), Citrus limonum and Citrus qurantifolia were chopped to obtain fresh citrus fruit peel. The fresh peel of each variety was subjected to extraction by three different extraction techniques. Microwave assisted extraction (MAE), Ultra-sonic assisted extraction (UAE), and traditional percolation. The obtained extracts were subjected to phytochemical comparative studies using the TLC densitometer scanner. The highest yield of the total (methylene chloride /methanol) extract was obtained by (MAE) for C. Sinensis (Washington), C.sinensis (Ibadan) and C.limonum 21.2%, 9.2%&7.6% respectively. While the highest yield for C.aurantifolia was 8% from UAE. Also they were subjected to in vitro bioassay on monolayer culture of rat hepatocytes. The CH2Cl2/ MeOH extracts of most tested samples showed hepatoprotective effect against paracetamol with high therapeutic index comparing to silymarin (Reference control). All tested samples showed moderate increase of Glutathione reductase. At the same time it showed higher or similar depression of nitric oxide in comparison with qurecetin. It was observed that the glutathione reductase levels were higher in traditional method than MAE and UAE which is a point that needed to be investigated in further work.

Keywords: Citrus peel, Hepatoprotection, Antioxidants, Diosmin, Naringin, Naringenin.