Thermosonication Processing of Purple Onion Juice (Allium cepa L.): Anticancer, Antibacterial, Antihypertensive, and Antidiabetic Effects

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) juice is an important product used in gastronomy and food formulations. The first objective of this study was to optimize the content of bioactive compounds in purple onion juice (POJ) after the thermosonication process using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) application models. Second, the anticancer, antibacterial, antihypertensive, and antidiabetic effects of POJ obtained after thermal pasteurization (P-POJ) or thermosonication (TS-POJ) were investigated after obtaining the ANN and RSM analysis reports. The optimization process for TS-POJ was carried out at 44 °C, for 13 min, with a 68% amplitude. The findings demonstrated that the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition level was greater in TS-POJ samples than in the untreated control (C-POJ) sample (p > 0.05). C-POJ, TS-POJ, and P-POJ exhibited the inhibition of cell proliferation in vitro in a dose-dependent manner in lung (A549), cervical (HeLa), and colon cancer cells following 24 h incubation. Thermosonication or thermal pasteurization did not markedly affect the cell proliferation of the examined cancer cells compared to the untreated control group. While no antibacterial effect was observed with low concentrations of samples, they showed an antibacterial effect at pure concentrations (100%). The thermosonication treatment for processing purple onion juice was successful in this study’s results.