Consortia of bioactives in supercritical carbon dioxide extracts of mustardand small cardamom seeds lower serum cholesterol levels in rats: newleads for hypocholesterolaemic supplements from spices

Abstract

Melatonin-rich and 1,8-cineole-rich extracts have been successfully obtained from yellow mustard (YM) and small cardamom (SC) seeds, respectively,employing green technology of supercritical CO2(SC-CO2) extraction. Chemical profiling confirmed the presence of melatonin and 1,8-cineole and co-extractants in the respective extracts. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy attested strong antioxidant activities of the extracts foregoing pan-assay interference compounds involved in spectroscopic analysis. These extracts also exhibited synergistic efficacies greater than unity confirming antioxi-dant synergy among the co-extracted bioactives therein. To ascertain hypocholesterolaemic efficacies, these extracts were co-administered orally with TritonX (at the pre-optimised dose of 175 mg/kg body weight (BW)) to Wistar albino rats at doses of 550, 175 and 55 mg/kg BW. Serum total cholesterol levelsin the rats were monitored on days 3, 7, 15 and 21. On day 21, total cholesterol level reduced appreciably by 49·44 % in rats treated with YM seed extractand by 48·95 % in rats treated with SC seed extract, comparable with atorvastatin-administered rats (51·09 %). Either extract demonstrated inhibitoryeffects on hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase activity. A molecular docking exercise identified specific compounds in theextracts which possessed binding affinities comparable with therapeutically used HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors.In silicoandin vivostudies concertedlyconcluded that the consortium of bioactive components in the extracts cannot be considered as invalid metabolic panaceas and therefore these‘green’extracts could be safely subjected to clinical studies as preventive biotherapeutics for hypercholesterolaemia. These extracts could be consumedper seas hypocholesterolaemic supplements or could be ingredients of new spice-based therapeutic foods.