Bioactive Phytochemicals, Antioxidant And Anti-Cancer Potential Of Hulls From Pistachio (Pistacia Atlantica Subsp. Mutica) Grown In Khorasan Razavi, Iran

Iran has been known as the largest exporter of pistachio in the world and pistachio is one of theprincipal agriculture plants in Iran. Pistacia atlantica var. Mutica is a member of Anacardiaceaefamily which distributed in the Western of Asia such as Syria, Iran and Turkey. Pistacia atlanticasubsp. Mutica is widely grown in some parts of Khorasan Razavi province. The hulls of pistachionuts have historically been used in traditional medicine to treat the sore throat, hemorrhages,diarrhea and gastrointestinal upsets. However, not much information is available regarding thepossible pharmaceutical applications of hulls from Pistacia atlantica subsp. Mutica as sources ofanti-cancer bioactive compound. Therefore, this research was conducted to evaluate the bioactivephytochemical compounds, antioxidant and anti-cancer potential of this inexpensive and readilyavailable agricultural by-product. The results revealed that hulls contained total phenolic contentof 146.5±0.12 mg GAE/ g DM and total flavonoid compounds of 82.6±0.28 mg rutin equivalent/ g DM.The hulls extract showed the appreciable antioxidant activity against DPPH free radicals with theIC50 value of 128 μg/ml. In addition, the extract potentially inhibited the proliferation of humancolon carcinoma cell lines (HT-29) while relatively induced toxicity in human liver cells (Chang cellline) as well. Overall, these results indicated that the hulls extract from Pistacia atlantica subsp.mutica could be considered as a promising and natural source of bioactive compounds to develop avalue-added product for treatment or retarding the proliferation of colon cancer cells.