Antioxidant, Anti‐Proliferative and Porcine α‐Amylase Inhibitory Potential of Flavonoids From <i>Hydnocarpus pentandrus</i> (Buch.–Ham.) Oken (In Vitro and In Silico Studies)

Diabetic people face a higher risk of developing certain types of cancers. Humans have used plants to treat each of these diseases but a combined remedy still eludes us. Hydnocarpus pentandrus (Buch.-Ham.) Oken is an under-studied endemic plant of India. We evaluated the antioxidant, anti-proliferative and porcine pancreatic α-amylase (PPA) inhibitory properties of methanol extract of H. pentandrus leaves (CHM). CHM contained various secondary metabolites, and 22 active compounds, mostly flavonoids, were detected with LC-MS/MS. This is the first report of presence of rutin, vitexin and luteolin in leaves of H. pentandrus. CHM and rutin and vitexin standards exhibited significant free radical scavenging potential. The anti-proliferative potential of the CHM (IC₅₀ = 326.29 µg/mL), rutin (IC₅₀ = 58.87 µg/mL) and vitexin (IC₅₀ = 64.35 µg/mL) was estimated with MTT assay in MDA-MB-231 cells in vitro. Apoptosis-related activity of the same samples was confirmed with DAPI staining. CHM, rutin and vitexin also showed dose-dependent inhibition of PPA. During in silico docking studies, both rutin and vitexin exhibited a strong binding affinity for PPA and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) proteins. Thus, the observed biological activities of CHM extract could be due to rutin and vitexin, the two most abundant flavonoids.