Antioxidant Phytocomplexes Isolated from Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Using Hydrodynamic Cavitation Reveal Potential Application as Adjuvants in Cancer Therapies

The affordable production of valuable antioxidant extracts from plant resources depends on the availability of enabling technologies, such as hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), characterized by unrivalled effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability in the extraction of natural products. As sources of phytochemicals showing biological effects on human health, including anti-cancer properties, pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruits were processed using HC. Fractions collected during the process (M1-M5) were lyophilized (L), filtered (A), or used as such (C), for identifying their best conservation practice. Biochemical profile and in vitro antioxidant power were investi-gated by spectrophotometric and chromatographic assays. The antiproliferative effect of L-M3, resulting from just 15 minutes of extraction, was tested on human breast cancer line (AU565-PAR) and peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMCs) cells from healthy donors. M3-M4 fractions from L and C series revealed the highest antiradical activity and phenolic content. Cell growth, death, and redox state were assessed, showing that the pomegranate extract M3 significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation and intracellular oxygen reactive species. No effect on PBMCs was de-tected. Thus, the use of antioxidants isolated using HC as adjuvants in anticancer therapies might be advantageous and affordable; moreover, since oxidative stress contributes to cancer devel-opment, its reduction might be the leading mechanism.