Porcupine bezoar: in vitro antioxidant and anti-proliferative effects

Objectives: Porcupine bezoar (PB) is a mass of undigested organic and inorganic materials formed within the gastrointestinal tract of the porcupine. PB has been claimed to possess medicinal properties to treat different types of diseases including cancer. However, these traditional claims are yet to be scientifically ascertained and properly validated. Hence, this study was aimed to evaluate antioxidant and anticancer activities of PB through different biological assays. Design and method: Powdered PB was sonicated with double distilled water to get aqueous extract (PBA) which was initially screened for its phenolic content, flavonoid content and anti-oxidant potential using total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and diphenl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays, respectively. Later on, in vitro anti-proliferative effect of PBA was evaluated against A375 (Skin Malignant Melanoma) and HGF-1 (normal cell). Results: PBA was found to contain low level of phenolic compounds and devoid of flavonoids. However, the DPPH assay showed low IC50 value indicating PBA’s potent anti-oxidant characteristic. Moreover, the PBA displayed low IC50 value and and also showed significant anti-proliferation pattern at 24, 48 and 72 hours exposures against A375 and HGF-1 cell lines. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that PB is medicinally potent in nature due to its strong antioxidant and anti-proliferative effects and could play an important role to cure different kinds of cancers. Keywords: Porcupine bezoar, aqueous extract, TPC, TFC, DPPH, antioxidant activity, anti-proliferative acitivity, A375 and HGF-1 cell line