Mei‐Ling Han;Li Guo;Xiaowei Liu;Li Ai;Peiqi Mao;Pengyuan Liu;Houhua L

College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Horticultural Production Systems, Floriculture, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover D-30419, Germany;Novogene Bioinformatics Technology Co. Ltd, Beijing 100089, China;College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, Chin

Crabapple;Phenolic profile;Antioxidant activity;Anti-proliferative activity;Human cancer cell;CELL-CYCLE ARREST;APPLE CULTIVARS;PLANT-EXTRACTS;CANCER;INHIBITION;COLON;PEEL;CHROMATOGRAPHY;FLAVONOIDS;APOPTOSI

To explore the potential of crabapples as functional food, polyphenols in crabapples and 'Fuji' apples were extracted, and the phenolic profile, total polyphenols, antioxidant activity and anti-proliferative activity against several human cancer cells were determined. The results indicated that crabapple extracts have more abundant phenols and higher total polyphenols (from 4.46 to 46.63 mg GAE.g(-1) DW) compared to 'Fuji' apples. Crabapple extracts possessed higher antioxidant activity than apple by DPPH and ABTS analysis. All fruit extracts exhibited inhibitory effects on proliferation in different cancer cells; however, crabapple extracts performed significantly better, with half inhibitory concentration (IC 50) values varied from 48.34 mu g.mL(-1) to 974.81 mu g.mL(-1) for colon cancer cells SW480, 64.67-1 466.35 mu g.mL(-1) for stomach cancer cells BGC-803, 78.88-910.64 mu g.mL(-1) for esophageal cancer cells CaEs-17. Besides, the red crabapples had higher antioxidant activity and anti-proliferative activity than yellow fruits. These results showed that crabapples, especially red crabapples, have great potential as a healthy food, as they are rich in phenolic compounds with high antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities to cancer cells.