ANTIOXIDANT, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY PROPERTIES AND OX-LDL UPTAKE PREVENTION POTENTIAL OF PHYSALIS MINIMA AT TWO STAGES OF MATURITY

The fruits of Physalis minima, an underexploited food plant, are known to be antioxidant in nature and suitable for consumption in both unripe and ripe stages. Hence it is important to find out the antioxidant activity of the fruit in both ripe and unripe stage to determine which stage of fruit could be exploited for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical research. Free radicals initiate many diseases including atherosclerosis, cancer etc. It was found that the unripe fruit methanol extract had higher free radical scavenging activity compared to that of ripe fruits as measured by DPPH, nitric oxide scavenging assay, phosphomolybdate assay and LDL oxidation inhibition assay. Further the unripe fruits were shown to have higher foam cell preventing activity than ripe fruits as seen by their abilities to prevent ox-LDL uptake by RAW 264.7 macrophages which indicates their potential to counteract atherosclerotic plaque formation. Nitrite radicals initiate and accelerate the process of atherosclerotic plaque formation by creating an inflammatory environment. The efficiency of unripe fruits to scavenge nitrite radicals in lipopolysaccharide stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages was very high compared to that of ripe fruits indicating their anti-inflammatory potential. The methanol extract of unripe fruits had higher total phenolic content (6μg gallic acid equivalent/mg dry weight) which reduced to 3.92μg gallic acid equivalent/mg dry weight upon ripening. HPLC profiling indicated an excess of cinnamic and chlorogenic acid in unripe fruits compared to ripe fruits and disappearance of sinapic acid and ferulic acid from ripe fruits.