Chemical Composition, in Vitro Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activities of Volatile Constituents from Pyrus communis L. and Malus domestica Borkh. Fruits cultivated in Egypt

Abstract

Volatile constituents of Pyrus communis L. (pear) and Malus domestica Borkh. (apple) fruits cultivated in Egypt were prepared by hydrodistillation and their chemical compositions were estimated by GC-MS. Nonacosane was found to be the major compound in both volatiles representing (50.8 %) and (24 %) respectively followed by methyl oleate (7.3 %) in P. communis L. and hexyl hexanoate (13.1 %) in M. domestica Borkh. Cytotoxic activity of both volatile constituents was evaluated by viability assay against four cell lines namely, WI-38 (Human lung fibroblast cells), A-549 (Human lung carcinoma), CHOK1 (Ovary carcinoma), and M-NFS-60 (Mouse myelogenous leukemia carcinoma). The highest cytotoxic activity of both volatile constituents was observed on A-549 cell line with IC50 (27.1 μg/ml) for M. domestica volatiles and (30.9 μg/ml) for P. communis L. volatiles. The antimicrobial activity was carried out for both volatiles using diffusion agar technique against Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhymurium. Both volatile constituents showed antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria and fungi also M. domestica Borkh. volatiles showed antimicrobial activity against both gram-negative bacteria while P. communis L. volatiles had antimicrobial activity against Salmonella typhimurium and had no activity against Escherichia coli.