Solanum betaceum: An Underutilized but Potential Tree Species with Anticancer Activity

Abstract

The North-East India is rich in fruit diversity and contains more than one-third of the country’s totaldiversity. Tamarillo or tree tomato (Solanum betaceum) is a small tree, underutilized but potential crop,cultivated for its edible fruit. It is a neglected, fast-growing, small fruit tree produces edible fruitswith high content of vitamins, minerals, phenolic and carotenoids compounds as well as lowcarbohydrates content. In India, tamarillo grows in the hilly regions of north eastern states, hilly areasof West Bengal and Maharashtra, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Nilgiri hills becauseof the cool climatic condition in which the crop can sustain. Tamarillo is a new source of pectin withpotential applications as thickeners/gelling agents depending on solvent or applied processes. Thisadds commercial value to the fruit and promotes further application for its pectin as a food additive.Amongst the fruits, only tamarillo mesocarp contains both polar (anthocyanins) and non-polar(carotenoids) pigments. The ability to retain both polar and non-polar pigments in the mesocarp isrelated to the unique properties of its hydrocolloids. High content of carotenoids found in tamarillofruits with 4.4 mg/100 g. The current market value of commercially used carotenoids is estimated atnearly $1.2 billion in 2010, with a chance to grow to $1.4 billion in 2018 with a compound annualgrowth rate of 2.3%. Purple red variety of tamarillo is endowed with antioxidant phytochemicals,which provide protection against oxidative stress induced diseases. FT-IR analysis revealed thepresence of alkanes, carboxylic acid, phenol, alkanes, carboxylic acids, aromatics and nitrocompounds. Supercritical fluid extracts from tamarillo epicarp is used as protectors against lipidoxidation of cooked beef meat. This extract is displayed as an option of use for this agroindustrialresidue, which provide added value to the fruit, helping to strengthen its supply chain. The tamarilloshows selective cytotoxicity towards liver hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG 2 ) and non-hormonedependent breast carcinoma (MDA-MB-231) but not on normal mouse fibroblast cells (3 T3 ) suggeststhat tamarillo is potentially a good anti-cancer agent since it is non-toxic towards normal cells. It alsoacts as a cytotoxic agent against selected cancer cell lines. Tamarillo contains lectins which are a groupof proteins of non-immune origin that bind carbohydrates specifically and non-convalently.