Rind of the rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, a potential source of natural antioxidants

Uma Palanisamy; Hwee Ming Cheng; Theanmalar Masilamani; Thavamanithevi Subramaniam; Lai Teng Ling; Ammu K Radhakrishnan

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2007.12.018

Rind of the rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, a potential source of natural antioxidants

Food Chem. 2008 Jul 1;109(1):54-63. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2007.12.018. Epub 2007 Dec 23.

Authors

Uma Palanisamy¹, Hwee Ming Cheng², Theanmalar Masilamani³, Thavamanithevi Subramaniam⁴, Lai Teng Ling⁵, Ammu K Radhakrishnan⁶

Affiliations

¹ SIRIM Bhd, 1 Persiaran Dato Menteri, 40911 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: umadevi@sirim.my.
² Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: chenghm@ummc.edu.my.
³ SIRIM Bhd, 1 Persiaran Dato Menteri, 40911 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: theanmalar_masilamani@sirim.my.
⁴ SIRIM Bhd, 1 Persiaran Dato Menteri, 40911 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: thava@sirim.my.
⁵ Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: linglaiteng@gmail.com.
⁶ International Medical University, No. 126 Jalan 19/155B, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: ammu_radhakrishnan@imu.edu.my.

PMID: 26054264
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2007.12.018

Abstract

The rind of rambutan, which is normally discarded was found to contain extremely high antioxidant activity when assessed using several methods. Although having a yield of only 18%, the ethanolic rambutan rind extract had a total phenolic content of 762±10mg GAE/g extract, which is comparable to that of a commercial preparation of grape seed extract. Comparing the extract's pro-oxidant capabilities with vitamin C, α-tocopherol, grape seed and green tea, the rind had the lowest pro-oxidant capacity. In addition, the extract at 100μg/ml was seen to limit oxidant-induced cell death (DPPH at 50μM) by apoptosis to an extent similar to that of grape seed. The extracts were not cytotoxic to normal mouse fibroblast cells or splenocytes while the powderised rind was seen to have heavy metals contents far below the permissible levels for nutraceuticals. Our study for the first time reveals the high phenolic content, low pro-oxidant capacity and strong antioxidant activity of the extract from rind of Nephelium lappaceum. This extract, either alone or in combination with other active principles, can be used in cosmetic, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications.

Keywords: Free radical-scavenging activity; Nephelium lappaceum; Nutraceuticals; Phenolic content; Pro-oxidant; Rambutan.