ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1613827
This article is part of the Research TopicBioactive Natural Products for Health: Isolation, Structural Elucidation, Biological Evaluation, Structure-activity Relationship, and Mechanism - Volume IIView all 5 articles
Metabolomics, Antioxidant, and Enzyme Inhibitory Effects of Citrus aurantium Fruits
Provisionally accepted
Omayma Eldahshan1
Salwa Bouabdallah2
Rawan Abd El-khalek3
Mahmoud El Hassab4*
Gokhan Zengin5
Ahmed T Negmeldin6*Eman Khaleel7
Wagdy Mohamed Eldehna8
Nada Mostafa1*- 1Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Beni Suef, Egypt
- 2Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Bizerte, Tunisia
- 3School of Medicine, New Giza University, Cairo, Beni Suef, Egypt
- 4King Salman International University, South Sinai, Egypt
- 5Selçuk University, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 6Gulf Medical University, Ajman, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
- 7King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
- 8Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr el-Sheikh, Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt
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The genus Citrus comprises a large number of economically important fruit crops. They are recognized globally as functional foods and, in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.We present herein, the chemical composition of the hexane extracts of Citrus aurantium (bitter orange) fruits and leaves for the first time, in addition to their antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activities. Results of GC-MS revealed nootkatone (15.29%), decyl anthranilate (11.58%), neryl acetate (7.83%), and linalool acetate (6.83%) as major components of fruit extract; while leaves extract contained mainly lupeol (24.32%), linalool (16.47%), friedelan-3-one (16.40%) and linalool acetate (12.31%). The extracts showed potential inhibitory activities against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), tyrosinase, amylase, and glucosidase enzymes. Results were confirmed by in-silico molecular docking studies on the respective enzymes' active sites viz NADPH oxidase, BChE, tyrosinase, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase.Amongst the docked compounds, lupeol showed the best binding affinities to NADPH oxidase, butyrylcholinesterase BChE, and α-glucosidase; while linalool acetate and nery acetate showed the best activities against tyrosinase and α-amylase enzymes, respectively. In conclusion, bitter orange waste products can be a potentially important source of antioxidants and useful supplements.
Keywords: Citrus aurantium, Bitter orange, Rutaceae, GC-MS, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Eldahshan, Bouabdallah, Abd El-khalek, Hassab, Zengin, Negmeldin, Khaleel, Eldehna and Mostafa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mahmoud El Hassab, King Salman International University, South Sinai, Egypt
Ahmed T Negmeldin, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, 4184, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Nada Mostafa, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Beni Suef, Egypt
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