Assessment of the Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial Potential and Cytotoxic Activity of Eriobotrya japonica fruits

The present study was carried out to evaluate the cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of both 70% methanol extract and the isolated polysaccharides from Eriobotrya japonica fruits as well as to investigate their chemical composition. The cytotoxic activity was evaluated against ovarian (SKOV-3), liver (HepG2) and prostate cancer cell lines (PC-3) by SRB (Sulforhodamine B) assay. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the well diffusion method against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhimurium, Candida albicans and Aspergillus brasiliensis. The results revealed that the extract was more potent than the isolated polysaccharide against the tested human cell lines. Moreover, the methanol extract was highly potent against (SKOV-3) with IC50 of (0.012 μg/mL) more than that of Doxorubicin (IC50 =0.86 μg/mL). In addition, the results revealed that the 70% methanol extract showed a reasonable antibacterial activity against all tested bacteria. While the isolated polysaccharides exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus only. In addition, Eriobotrya japonica fruits contain 41% (wt/wt) carbohydrate as glucose and 37% (wt/wt) as mucilage. These results may help to discover new classes of a natural cytotoxic and antimicrobial drug after applying several clinical trials to confirm that it can be safely applied in living systems.