Phytochemical characteristics and antioxidant capacity of fruit extracts of different prunus species

Fruits are one of the major sources of polyphenol compounds in human diet. These compounds are known to have many health-promoting activities, especially anticancer, antiradical and antioxidant effects. In this work, seven different Prunus species traditionally grown in south Bačka region of Vojvodina were investigated: blackthorn (P. spinosa), plum (P. domestica), apricot (P. armeniaca), cherry plum (P. cerasifera), sweet cherry (P. avium), sour cherry (P. cerasus) and mahaleb cherry (P. mahaleb). Freeze-dried fruits were evaluated in terms of their phytochemical characteristics and bioactivity, determining total content of phenolics, flavonoids and anthocyanins, total antioxidant capacity and antiproliferative effect on human colon cancer cells (HT29). Blackthorn fruits are the richest in phenolic and flavonoid contents, while mahaleb cherry and sweet cherry had much higher content of total anthocyanins than other examined species. Apricot and cherry plum fruits had the lowest levels of polyphenol compounds, but very high antiproliferative effect, almost the same as blackthorn. This indicates that not only polyphenol compounds contribute to antiproliferative effects. Concerning total antioxidant activity, blackthorn, sweet cherry, sour cherry and mahaleb cherry showed the highest capacity of scavenging DPPH radical and ferric reducing activity power