Abstract

Pomegranate or Punica granatum is a fruit that is known for its various pharmacological activities such as antioxidant
and cytotoxic activities. Commercial Punica granatum in Malaysia are mostly imported but there are pomegranates that are grown
locally. Many studies and research have been done on imported Punica granatum but very little is done on locally grown Punica
granatum. This study aims to evaluate and compare the antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of methanolic pulp and peel extract of
both local and imported Punica granatum through in vitro studies. The antioxidant study was done by evaluating the Total Phenolic
Content (TPC) and 2, 2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. TPC was done using Folin-Ciocalteu assay and DPPH assay
was done using 2, 2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. The standards used in these assays were gallic acid, quercetin and ascorbic acid
respectively. Cytotoxic study was conducted through MTT (3 (4, 5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay
against MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231 breast cancer cell lines, head and neck tumour HTB-143 cell line and 3T3 normal cell line. This
study revealed that peel extracts have a higher content of phenol and the anticancer analysis shows that the peel extract of local
Punica granatum has cytotoxic activity against all cell lines including 3T3 normal cell line.

Key words: punica granatum, pomegranate, antioxidant