Biological activities of extract prepared from Sorbus sibirica fruit

Jie Wei, Jia Shi, Jun Gao, Zhi

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the biological activities of extract prepared from Sorbus. sibirica fruits using various in vitro assays. It possessed antibacterial and antifungal activities as determined by growth inhibition assay. Among the eight different microorganisms tested, Staphylococcus aureus was most sensitive while Aspergillus niger was least sensitive to inhibition. In addition to antimicrobial activity, the extract also inhibited the growth of cancer cells, such as HeLa and BGC823 cells. At the molecular level, S. sibirica fruit extract substantially protected both protein and DNA against oxidation-induced damage and loss caused by Fenton’s reagent, in which the principle oxidative agent is hydrogen peroxide. In conclusion, this preliminary study showed that S. sibirica could be considered as a potential preservative for application in food production.