Phytochemical Profiling and Molecular Docking studies of Orange and Pomegranate Fruit Peel Against Cervical Cancer

The peel of orange and pomegranate fruits are discarded as waste, even though they have many phytoconstituents of therapeutic value. In order to reduce the agro-wastes generated after the use of these fruits and to find a new therapeutic application of the peel, this work was undertaken to give a profile of the phytochemicals present in the peel and to find their efficacy against cervical cancer caused by Human Papilloma Virus through molecular docking studies. FTIR and GC-MS spectra of the extracts helped identify and profile the phytochemicals present in the peel extract. As predicted by PASS software, d-limonene and o-Cymene–phytochemicals- showed therapeutic potential and were chosen for docking studies. ADME properties of both compounds were analyzed to evaluate their suitability as a drug. Molecular docking was performed to study the protein-ligand interactions of D-limonene and o-Cymene with target proteins E6 and E7 of the Human Papilloma Virus. Imiquimod, a synthetic medicine for cervical cancer, was used as a control. Both D-limonene and o-Cymene showed binding affinities comparable to the control drug's. The results suggested that they could be a promising natural remedy for cervical cancer after further investigation