APPLE SEEDS: PHYTOCHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL PROPERTY AND TOXICOLOGY

People throughout the world have long used various fruits, leaves, and plant parts as nutraceuticals and valuable sources of herbal treatments. Apples (Malus domestica) are a popular fruit with a high level of medicinal efficacy, whose seeds have also demonstrated a very high therapeutic and nutritional value when ingested in the right amount and form (apple seed flour or oil). Found in cold temperate regions worldwide and in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh in India. Malus domestica fruit, peels and seeds, when extracted in alcohol or acetone medium, show a high content of proteins, fatty acids, dietary fibres, polyphenols, vitamins and minerals, polysaccharides, phytosterols, pentacyclic triterpenes and cyanogenic glycosides (amygdalin). Polyphenols like proanthocyannidin, catechin, quercetin, phloridzin are very effective in treating hyperglycemia, cholesterol, neuropsychiatric diseases, cancer, and gastrointestinal disorders. Another cytotoxic component present in the seeds is amygdalin, which shows anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory properties. Other than this, pectin, a polysaccharide (peel and seeds), phytosterols (leaves, stem, root, seeds), pentacyclic triterpenes (peel and seeds), along with other mentioned constituents, show high antioxidant, anti-obesity, anti-viral, anti-proliferative, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, anti-depressant, anti-inflammatory, anti-ageing and immunity-boosting activity. This review provides the prospect of utilizing mainly the seeds that are generally considered to be “waste” of this deciduous tree Malus domestica fruit, showing immense phytochemical components with lots of medicinal values, and thus provides new scope for utilizing its chemical constituents in herbal drug design shortly to treat acute and chronic diseases.