Polyketide Natural Products, Acetogenins from Graviola (Annona muricata L), its Biochemical, Cytotoxic Activity and...

Plants became the basis of traditional medicine system throughout the world for thousands of years and continue to provide mankind with new remedies. Annona muricata, the plant of Annonaceae family, is also known as sour sop or Graviola. In recent years, many compounds have been reported and have gained organic chemist's and biochemist's attention because of their novel structure and wide range of bioactivity. Local populations have used the bark, leaves, roots, fruit, seeds and flowers for thousands of years to treat everything from arthritis to liver problems. Annonaceous acetogenins found only in the Annonaceae family kill malignant cells of 12 different types of cancer including Breast, Ovarian, Colon, Prostate, Liver, Lung, Pancreatic and Lymphoma.

Hence, the study was initiated to identify, fractionate and validate compounds of pharmaceutical importance from the leaf extract. Research was made for the phytochemical screening using different solvents and the metabolites were screened using TLC.

The presence of acetogenins was confirmed using PMA 5% spray. The anti-cancer activity studies were done for Breast Cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and the cell inhibition activity was 98%. We were curious to study the computational part of the aetogenins; hence, apart from the experimental studies, various computational studies were progressed using Schrödinger and other computational tools to validate the key target protein and the potent molecule "Coronin" and Annonaine.

To predict and decipher the activity of various acetogenins in Annona muricata and its potent activity towards the inhibition of cancer cell lines, it is interesting to look out for the potent lead compound against the disease.