Investigation of Potential In Vitro Anticancer and Antimicrobial Activities of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile Fruit Extract and Its Phytochemical Components.

The therapeutic importance of Balanites aegyptiaca in folk medicine for the treatment of several common human diseases has led researchers to conduct phytochemical and pharmacological studies on extracts from various parts of the plant. In the current study, the phytochemical composition of the B. aegyptiaca methanolic fruit extract was characterized, and its antimicrobial activity was evaluated together with the cytotoxic activity against MCF-7, PC-3, and Caco-2, compared with normal Vero cells. Further, its effects on cell cycle arrest, apoptosis induction and expression of apoptosis-related genes were assessed. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of fatty acids and their esters in addition to phytosterols, steroid derivatives, and bioflavonoid glycosides with oleic and palmitic acids being the prevalent components (24.12 and 21.56%, respectively). The results showed considerable cytotoxic activity of the extract against the three cancer cell lines (MCF-7, PC-3, and Caco-2) with a selectivity index ranging from 5.07 to 6.52. This effect was further confirmed with the accompanied increased total apoptosis of treated PC-3 cells (19.22% of the total number of cells) compared to the control cells (0.64% of the total number of cells) with cell cycle arrest at G1 phase and the increased transcription of pro-apoptotic genes including P53 (3.69) and BAX (3.33) expressed as fold change (2^ ΔΔCT). The calculated minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was similar (62.5 µg/mL) against the three tested bacterial strains (Acinetobacter johnsonii, Serratia marcescens and Agrobacterium tumefaciens), while it was higher than 1000 µg/mL for the fungal species (Rhizoctonia solani, Penicillium italicum, and Fusarium oxysporium). Our findings suggest a promising anticancer activity for B. aegyptiaca, which paves the way for more detailed future studies.

An overview of recent advances and applications of FT-IR spectroscopy for quality, authenticity, and adulteration detection in edible oils.

Authenticity and adulteration detection are primary concerns of various stakeholders, such as researchers, consumers, manufacturers, traders, and regulatory agencies. Traditional approaches for authenticity and adulteration detection in edible oils are time-consuming, complicated, laborious, and expensive; they require technical skills when interpreting the data. Over the last several years, much effort has been spent in academia and industry on developing vibrational spectroscopic techniques for quality, authenticity, and adulteration detection in edible oils. Among them, Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has gained enormous attention as a green analytical technique for the rapid monitoring quality of edible oils at all stages of production and for detecting and quantifying adulteration and authenticity in edible oils. The technique has several benefits such as rapid, precise, inexpensive, and multi-analytical; hence, several parameters can be predicted simultaneously from the same spectrum. Associated with chemometrics, the technique has been successfully implemented for the rapid detection of adulteration and authenticity in edible oils. After presenting the fundamentals, the latest research outcomes in the last 10 years on quality, authenticity, and adulteration detection in edible oils using FT-IR spectroscopy will be highlighted and described in this review. Additionally, opportunities, challenges, and future trends of FT-IR spectroscopy will also be discussed.