Bioassay guided fractionation of anthelmintic bioactive compounds from surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora L.) fruits.

Bio-fractionation process is the most reliable protocol, which enables the screening and purification of phytoconstituents
from the crude extracts efficiently. Soil transmitted helminths induce the most challenging health
concerns, which need to be addressed in a holistic way for natural product utilization. Surinam cherry fruits, rich
in phytonutrients and secondary metabolites with several health benefits are also reported to have anthelmintic
potential. Bioassay guided fractionation of Surinam cherry mature green pulp ethanol (MPE) extract afforded five
active fractions with higher anthelmintic activity against all the stages of Caenorhabditis elegans and Heterorhabditis
indica than their crude extract. The active fractions were further characterized using UPLC-HRMS/MS
analysis and FTIR. Fraction C3 obtained using 100% chloroform resulted in 97.67% inhibition of egg hatching,
95% larval death with APT of 8.08 min, and 95.33% adult worm death with APT of 4 min at the concentration
of 2 mg/ml in C. elegans. The anthelmintic activity of C3 was correlated to 14 phenolic compounds such as
kaempferol-3-O-glucuronide, kaempferol-3-O-sophoroside, isorhamnetin, rhamnetin, isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside,
catechin, eriodictyol-7-O-glucoside, luteolin-6-C-glucoside, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, estragole, biochanin
A, syringaresinol, juglone, and pterostilbene present in it. This study indicates that relatively more active
fractions could be separated from Surinam cherry MPE crude extract for anthelmintic potential against C. elegans
and H. indica, which can be used for pharmaceutical applications.