STUDIES ON AMYGDALIN

Yousef M. Shehata*, Doaa M. AbdEl-Fattah and Zeinab M. Abdou

ABSTRACT

Amygdalin is considered one of the nitrilosides, natural cyanide containing substances abundant in the plants seeds of the prunasin family that have been used to treat cancers and also as pain reliever. Particularly, D-amygdalin (D-mandelonitrile-b-D-gentiobioside) is known to exhibit selective killing effect on cancer cells. Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is an important mechanism in cancer treatment. In the present study, we extract amygdalin from sweet apricot kernels, cashew seeds, and bitter almond seeds by ethanol extraction at 37oc, then determination and quantitation the amygdalin concentration in these extractions by application of high performance liquid chromatography HPLC procedure. The highest extract containing amygdalin of the three plants investigated whether this extract induces apoptotic cell death in human breast cancer cell MCF-7 in comparing with other concentrations of pure amygdalin which purchased from Sigma Aldrich. In the present results, we found that the bitter almond extraction containing the highest concentration of the three plants extractions. MCF-7 cells treated with amygdalin exhibited several morphological characteristics of apoptosis. Here we have shown that the treatment with amygdalin decreased expression of BCL-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, and increased caspase-3 enzyme activity in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The present study reveals that amygdalin may offer a valuable option for the treatment of breast cancers.

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