Screening of Furanone in Cucurbita melo and Evaluation of its Bioactive Potential Using In Silico Studies

The work presented here attempts to screen for the presence of 4-Hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone in fruits and also any bioactive potential present in the fruit extracts. Curcurbita melo was selected for the study, and the fruit was crushed, filtered and extracted with ethyl acetate as the solvent. The resulting extract was subjected to disk diffusion test using Kirby Bauer method for checking its antimicrobial potential. Melon extract showed promising results against different clinical pathogens, 19-mm zone being the largest against Klebsiella pneumoniae and 17 mm against Shigella dysenteriae. GC-MS data of the melon extract confirmed the existence of furanone derivative in the extract. To evaluate the antimicrobial activity, in silico studies were performed using AutoDock 4.0 software, and topoisomerase was used as the target protein molecule for the isolated compound and 3-methyl-2-(2-oxopropyl)furan as the ligand. Further, the results were interpreted using PyMol and Ligplot plus softwares. The results confirmed the presence of molecular interactions between the protein molecule and the ligand. It can be envisaged that these interactions are responsible for the inhibitory effects of the extract .