Journal of Pharmacy Research Vol.10 Issue 5 May 2016 Mona E. El-Tantawy et al. / Journal of Pharmacy Research 2016,10(5),308-318 308-318 Research Article ISSN: 0974-6943 Available online through http://jprsolutions.info * Corresponding author. Dr. Rasha M. Lithy National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza, Egypt. Phytochemical and Biological Evaluation of Banana, Cantaloupe and Guava Waste Parts Mona E. El-Tantawy 1 , Eman G. Haggag 2 , Amel M. Kamal 2 , Rasha M. Lithy 1* 1 National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza, Egypt 2 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt Received on:21-03-2016; Revised on: 25-04-2016; Accepted on: 20-05-2016 ABSTRACT Background: This work aimed to study the lipoidal matter, phytoconstituents, total polyphenols (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and total carotenes (TC) contents of peels of both Musa paradisicae L. var. sapientum Kuntze (banana) and Cucumis melo L. (cantaloupe) in addition to pulp of Psidium guajava L. (guava) cultivated in Egypt and evaluate their antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Methods: Lipoidal matters were prepared and analyzed by GC/MS according to British pharmacopeia. TP, TF and TC of 80% hydro-methanolic extracts of the parts under investigation were detected by colorimetric methods. The isolated compounds were identified by different physico-chemical methods including UV, HPLC, 1 H NMR and ESI-MS. Results: Palmitic acid was the main saturated fatty acid in the three parts and the percentage of sterols, in banana peel only was detected as 72.47% higher than the percentage of hydrocarbons (23.58%). Twenty compounds were isolated and identified by different physical and chromatographic techniques (7 compounds from banana peels, 5 compounds from cantaloupe peels and 8 compounds from guava pulp). Extract of banana peel showed the best antimicrobial activity while extract of guava pulp showed the best activity against all tested tumor cell lines. Conclusion: Thus, waste parts of the investigated fruits showed a significant medicinal value for their active compounds. KEYWORDS: Banana, Cantaloupe, Guava, Phytochemical, Biological activity 1. INTRODUCTION Musaceae, banana family, consists of Zingiberales having spirally arranged leaves, separate male and female flowers and pulpy fruits and comprises 6 genera with 45 species [1] . Cucurbitaceae, cucumber family or vine crop family, contains herbaceous annuals or perennials with storage roots and mostly moist vines, rarely grow as trees shrubs or bushes [1] and it comprises 100 genera and 850 species [2] . Myrtaceae, myrtle family, consists of moderate-sized or small trees, or shrubs comprising 80 genera and 3000 species [1] . Musa paradisicae L. var. sapientum Kuntze (banana), Cucumis melo L. (cantaloupe) and Psidium guajava L. (guava) are food crops cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions [1] . They are rich in biologically active phytoconstituents as essential oils, sterols/triterpenes, carotenoids, pectins and flavonoids [3,4] . They are used as antioxidant, hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic [5,6,7] . The biological importance and the few phytochemical studies reported on these species grow- ing in Egypt, together with huge unusable amounts of these wastes encouraged the author to carry out this study. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant material Samples of ripe fruits of banana (Musa paradisiaca L. var. sapientum Kuntze), cantaloupe (Cucumis melo L) and guava (Psidium guajava L) were collected from trees in gardens, Horticultural Research Sta- tion, El-Qanater, Qalyoubia, Egypt during November/December 2012/ 2013 for banana and guava and March/April 2014/2015 for canta- loupe. The identity of the fruits was confirmed by Dr. Abdel Halim Abdel Mogaly, Agricultural Museum, Giza, Egypt. Voucher specimen (Reg. no. B-5, C-4 and G-2) were kept in the herbarium of Phytochem- istry Lab., National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza, Egypt. The peels of banana, cantaloupe and pulp of guava were then air-dried in the shade, reduced to powder and kept in dark tightly-closed containers. Instruments Aglient 6890 gas chromatograph equipped with an Aglient mass spectrometric detector with a direct capillary interface and fused silica capillary column HP-5MS (30 m X 0.32 mm X 0.25 μm film thickness) (Agricultural Pesticide Lab, Giza, Egypt), was used for GLC analysis of unsaponifiable matter and fatty acid methyl esters; Varian nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (400 MHz) (Chemical Warfare