Looking at the antioxidant, antidiabetic and anticancer properties of euodia lunuankenda

In this study, researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia examined the antioxidant effect, glucose uptake activity in cell lines, and the cytotoxicity of the leaf extract of Melicope lunu-ankenda (ML) or Euodia lunuankenda, a plant native to tropical Asia. Their findings were published in the Journal of Herbal Medicine.

• The researchers used two different cell lines: 3t3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells for the experiment.
• They used ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay to evaluate the antioxidant potential of the ML leaf extract.
• They used 2-NBDG, a fluorescent indicator, to determine the effect of the leaf extract on glucose uptake.
• They used (3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) MTT assay to assess its cytotoxicity on the two cell lines.
• They found that the 60 percent ethanolic ML extract had the highest antioxidant activity, and it contained 354 milligrams (mg) gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/ gram (g) dry weight (DW) of total phenolics and 313 mg rutin equivalent (RE)/ g DW of flavonoid.
• The ML extract also stimulated the fluorescent 2-NBDG uptakes by both cell lines; glucose uptake increased in a dose-dependent way.
• The ML extract showed high cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells but was ineffective against the 3t3-L1 cell line, suggesting potent but selective anticancer activity.

These results demonstrated that ML is a medicinal plant that has both antidiabetic and anticancer properties.

Journal Reference:

Al-Zuaidy MH, Ismail A, Mohamed S, Razis AFA, Mumtaz MW, Hamid AA. ANTIOXIDANT EFFECT, GLUCOSE UPTAKE ACTIVITY IN CELL LINES AND CYTOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF MELICOPE LUNU-ANKENDA LEAF EXTRACT. Journal of Herbal Medicine. December 2018;14:55–60. DOI: 10.1016/j.hermed.2018.06.002