Borututu, artichoke and milk thistle: chemical profiles, antioxidant properties, anti-hepatocellular carcinoma activity and hepatotoxicity
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abstract
Artichoke, borututu and milk thistle are medicinal plants widely consumed as infusions
or included in dietary supplements for the treatment prevention of liver diseases. In the
present work, their nutritional value was assessed and analytical tools (gas and liquid
chromatography coupled to different detectors) were used to distinguish the chemical
profiles namely in hydrophilic (sugars and organic acids) and lipophilic (fatty acids and
tocopherols) compounds [1]. Furthermore, antioxidant properties (radicals scavenging
activity, reducing power, and lipid peroxidation inhibition), anti-hepatocellular carcinoma
activity (HepG2 tumor cell line) and toxicity (non-tumor liver cells primary culture) of their
infusions and dietary supplements (pills and syrups) were evaluated and compared [2,3].
Borututu gave the highest energetic value with the highest content of carbohydrates and
fat, sucrose and total sugars, shikimic and citric acids, a-, 13-. 5- and total tocopherols.
Artichoke had the highest ash and protein contents, oxalic acid, SFA (mainly palmitic
Acid), and y-tocopherol, as also the best n6/n3 ratio. Milk thistle showed the highest
levels of fructose and glucose, quinic acid and total organic acids, PUFA, mainly linoleic
acid, and the best PUFNSFA ratio. All the samples revealed antioxidant properties with
EC50 values lower than the daily recommended dose, but infusions showed higher activity
than dietary supplements, with the exception of milk thistle syrup, that gave similar
EC50 values to the borututu infusion. Among all the samples, the pills revealed the lowest
antioxidant activity. The syrup of milk thistle and the infusions of borututu and artichoke
revealed anti-hepatocellular carcinoma activity, but the latest also showed toxicity for
normal cells at a higher concentration. None of the pills showed cytotoxicity. Thereby,
for the mentioned purposes, it seems unnecessary to acquire expensive supplements
instead of infusions.
