A bioactive compound isolated from Duku (Lansium domesticum Corr) fruit peels exhibits cytotoxicity against T47D cell line

Background: Breast cancer is a major health problem for women globally. Many attempts have been promoted to cure cancer by finding new anticancer medicines from natural resources. Despite the richness of biodiversity discovered, there are some natural resources that remain unexplored. Fruit peels of Duku (Lansium domesticum Corr.) are rich with compounds that may have the potential to be developed as anticancer drugs. This study aimed to isolate cytotoxic compounds from the fruit peels of L. domesticum and assess their cytotoxic nature against T47D cells.

Methods: Powdered peels were macerated with ethyl acetate and the filtrate was evaporated to give EtOAc extract A. Dried extract A was triturated with n-hexane to give n-hexane soluble fraction B and insoluble fraction C. The cytotoxic nature of these three  samples  were assessed using MTT assay using T47D cells and doxorubicin as a control

Results: Fraction C that showed the smallest IC₅₀ (25.56 + 0.64µg/mL) value compared to  extract A and fraction BFraction C was further fractionated by vacuum liquid chromatography to give 6 subfractions. Subfraction 2 showed a single compound based on thin layer chromatography, and this compound was identified as Lamesticumin A on the basis of its spectroscopic data. Lamesticumin A demonstrated cytotoxic activity against T47D cell lines with an IC₅₀ value of 15.68 + 0.30µg/mL.