Evaluation of antioxidative and antitumor activities of extracted flavonoids from Pink Lady apples in human colon and breast cancer cell lines

The antioxidative and anticancer effects of extracted flavonoids from Pink Lady apples on human colon cancer LoVo cells and breast cancer MCF-7 cells were evaluated. It was found that the antioxidative property of the peel-flavonoids (Peel-F) was more effective than that of the flesh-flavonoids (Flesh-F). Meanwhile, both the Peel-F and Flesh-F can inhibit cancer cell growth in a dose-dependent manner, with the IC50 values of 110.33 ± 2.52 mg mL(-1) and 378.14 ± 1.64 mg mL(-1) for LoVo cells and 58.42 ± 1.39 mg mL(-1) and 296.06 ± 3.71 mg mL(-1) for MCF-7 cells. This led to the conclusion that the Peel-F were more effective against cancer cells than the Flesh-F, and that the scavenging ROS effects were significantly higher in the Peel-F in vitro. Moreover, we also found that the generation of ROS is a critical mediator in apple flavonoid-induced cell apoptosis and the induction effect of the Peel-F was significantly higher than that of the Flesh-F.