Chemical Profiling and Bioactivity of Various Parts of Four Solanum melongena Varieties

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a widely cultivated vegetable and preferred by many people in meals due to its taste. Herein, the fruits, stems, leaves, and roots of four varieties of eggplants were analyzed for their phenolic compounds using high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), while antioxidant, anticholinesterase, and α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities were assessed spectrophotometrically. Both chromatographic and bioactivity data were further evaluated through principal component and correlation analyses. Hesperidin (21.23-85.72 mg/g), fumaric acid (9.46-72.92 mg/g), vanillin (0.2-3.92 mg/g), pyrocatechol (0.4-9.91 mg/g), p-coumaric acid (0.59-2.90 mg/g), and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (0.07-0.22 mg/g) were quantified in leaves in higher amounts. On the other hand, roots exhibited notable butyrylcholinesterase (IC₅₀:130.44-180.38 µg/mL) and α-glucosidase (IC₅₀:148.45-165 µg/mL) inhibitory activities, comparable to galantamine (52.18 µg/mL) and acarbose (205.08 µg/mL), respectively. Results suggest exciting opportunities to apply this research to the development of functional foods and therapeutic formulations in the food and pharmaceutical industries through further studies.