Study of lectin, antioxidant, cytotoxicity and anticancer properties of Punica granatum fruit juice against EAC cells in Swiss Albino mice

Natural compounds from our daily diet can suppress or reverse the progression of cancer. Fruits and vegetables consumption are inversely associated with the reduction of cancer incidence and mortality. Antioxidants from fruits have been extensively studied for their free radical scavenging activities to prevent the occurrence of chronic degenerative diseases. Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruit is known to have interesting pharmaceuticals activities and of great interest in biomedical research now a days. This fruit has been shown to exert anticancer and antioxidant activity which is generally attributed to its high content of polyphenols due to their effects of neutralizing free radicals. Current research was aimed to find out the presence or absence of anticancer activity of pomegranate fruit juice. The hemagglutination assay was performed in 96-well microtiter U-bottomed plates to determine the presence of lectin protein at the lower concentration of 52 µg/100 µL. When pomegranate juice was injected to EAC bearing mice for 5 days, it significantly decreased cancerous cells and percentage of cell growth inhibition was 56.28%. Apoptotic changes of EAC cells from treated mice were determined by light fluorescence microscopy. Interestingly, cell growth inhibition was clearly visible with pomegranate juice significantly. Further studies can be carried out to identify the lead compound responsible for anticancer activities of P. granatum fruit juice.