Abstract
The present work examined the biomedical value of red and yellow bell pepper extracts (YME and RME) in terms of antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer activities by in vitro and virtual studies. The yield of extract was 3.49% for RME and 2.92% for YME. The level of total phenols and total flavonoids significantly varied between the type of extracts, and it was higher in RME than that in YME. The extracts showed promising DPPH and ABTS free radical scavenging rates. The extracts showed an excellent antibacterial activity. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of RME was 0.20 mg mL-1 for Bacillus cereus, 0.30 mg mL-1 for Escherichia coli, 0.50 mg mL-1 for Staphylococcus aureus and 0.60 mg mL-1 and for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while the MIC of YME was 0.40 mg mL-1 for B. cereus, 0.40 mg mL-1 for E. coli, 0.50 mg mL-1 for S. aureus, and 0.60 mg mL-1 for P. aeruginosa. TEM results demonstrated the cellular damage induced by RME in B. cereus biofilm. The RME did not show any cytotoxicity in normal NIH3T3 cells, but at 125 μg mL-1 did a strong cytotoxicity in human lung cancer cell line A549 as evident by cytotoxicity assay, ROS and AO/EB staining. The virtual biological examination indicated that β-carotene from RME was a potential compound with higher docking energy against both targeted enzymes and proteins as - 14.30 for LpxC and - 15.59 for survivin. Therefore, it is recommended that RME is a better functional food with novel biomedical properties and it deserves further evaluation for its the novel molecules against multidrug resistant pathogens.