Ananas comosus peel as an ecofriendly phytotherapy for the remediation of cancer

Abstract

Pineapple is botanically named as Ananas comosus, which is a wide growing crop in the World and ranks third in tropical fruit consumption and production. Its massive utilization in the confectionary and canning industry leads to the production of enormous amount of by-products like as crown, peel and core. While, the peel of pineapple alone accounts the largest proportion from total waste production i.e. about 32-40% and it constitutes various nutrients along with some vital secondary metabolites like myricetin, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, gallic acid, epicatechin, catechin, quercetin, trans-cinnamic acid, salicylic acid, p-coumaric acid, tannic acid etc. It also provides best role in ethnomedicine. Cancer is a life threatening disease, which affects the cells of the body that consequently injures DNA of the cells, and this injury accumulates in the body. Many studies suggested that waste extracts of pineapple peel shows anti-carcinogenic activity against various human cancer cell lines viz A549 (lung cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer), HCT116 (colorectal carcinoma), U118 (glioblastoma), CaCo-2 (human colorectal adenocarcinoma), Skov-3 (ovarian sarcoma), HeLa (cervical cancer cell), HT29 (colon cancer) closed to the values of doxorubicin whereas no anti-cancer activity was reported against HL-60, HFB4 (normal cell lines) and HepG2 (liver cancer). In conclusion, the peels generated as pollutant in environment could be transformed into worth as an eco-friendly agent for the prevention of cancer against different and many cancer causing cell lines.