Nutrition profile, chemical analysis and biological activities of Areca catechu L. seeds (Areca nut) from Borneo

This study objective was to investigate nutrient profile, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, major chemical components, as well as biological activities of Areca catechu seeds. The nutrients analysis revealed that both unripe fruit and ripe fruit seeds contained high carbohydrates and high crude fiber. The pure compound was isolated using various chromatographic techniques, and the structure was elucidated based on the spectral data which included Gas Chromatography-Mas Spectroscopy (GC-MS), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The total phenolic content of both extracts ranged from 568.19 mg GAE/g to 813.56 mg GAE/g. Meanwhile, the total flavonoid content (TFC) of these extracts was ranged from 125.03 mg QUE/g to 190.44 mg QUE/g. In addition, the antioxidant activity which was determined by using the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay showed that the inhibition concentration, IC50 values were ranged from 7.29 μg/mL to 9.56 μg/mL. It was observed that the methanol extract of ripe fruit exhibited higher antioxidant activity. These results suggest that areca nut has the potential to prevent oxidative damage in normal cells due to their antioxidant characteristics. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (SA), S. pyogenes (SP), Escherichia coli (EC), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) were also performed by using (MIC) and (MBC) assays. Both the methanol and extracts of unripe fruit and ripe fruit revealed strong antimicrobial activities with MIC and MBC values of 450 μg/mL for SA, EC, PA while the MIC and MBC values of 225 μg/mL for SP. This indicates that A. catechu has health benefits when consumed in a small amount. Hence, it has excellent potential as an alternative antibacterial agent and may be marketed as other pharmaceutical products.