Assessment on in vitro medicinal properties and chemical composition analysis of Solanum virginianum dried fruits

The study was aimed to screen the presence of phytoconstituents and determine distinct in vitro medicinal traits of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Solanum virginianum dried fruits. Aqueous and ethanolic extract showed total phenolic content of 207.5 ± 0.16 and 268.4 ± 0.42 GAE/mg, respectively. Likewise, total flavonoid content of 50.12 ± 0.39 and 192.88 ± 0.27 QE/mg was estimated for the aqueous and ethanolic extract, respectively. In vitro antibacterial, antioxidant, α-amylase inhibition, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer attributes of extracts were assessed using standard protocols. The antibacterial traits of both the extracts were assessed against certain pathogenic bacteria which exhibited maximum zone of inhibition of 22.3 ± 0.6 mm against Staphylococcus aureus. Antioxidant tests showed not only significant scavenging of DPPH, superoxide, hydroxyl, and ABTS●+ radicals but also estimated ferric reducing power and phosphomolybdenum reduction activities of extracts in a concentration dependent manner. The aqueous extract (54.12 ± 0.44–86.80 ± 0.27%) depicted higher rate of α-amylase inhibition than ethanolic extract (23.07 ± 0.47–81.61 ± 0.43%) at distinct concentrations. Similarly, the aqueous extract protected the haemolysis (46.19 ± 0.14–66.21 ± 0.17%) effectively as compared to the ethanolic extract (12.67 ± 0.19–38.03 ± 0.41%). The aqueous and ethanolic extract showed cytotoxicity against HepG2 cell lines in the range of 32.23 ± 0.34–54.82 ± 0.26% and 49.25 ± 0.38–73.2 ± 0.3%, respectively. Additionally, the GC–MS analysis confirmed the availability of total 15 predominant bioactive constituents in both extracts. Findings of this context indicated pronounced applications of S. virginianum fruits as future therapeutic.