ORIGINAL PAPER Melanoma Inhibition by Anthocyanins Is Associated with the Reduction of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers and Changes in Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Zoriţa Diaconeasa 1 & Huseyin Ayvaz 2 & Dumitriţa Ruginǎ 1 & Loredana Leopold 1 & Andreea Stǎnilǎ 1 & Carmen Socaciu 1 & Flaviu Tăbăran 1 & Lavinia Luput 3 & Diana Carla Mada 4 & Adela Pintea 1 & Andrew Jefferson 5 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Abstract Anthocyanins are water soluble pigments which have been proved to exhibit health benefits. Several studies have investigated their effects on several types of cancer, but little attention has been given to melanoma. The phytochem- ical content of nine different berry samples was assessed by liquid chromatography followed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI + -MS). Twenty-six anthocyanins were identified, after a previous C 18 Sep-pak clean-up proce- dure. Chokeberry and red grape anthocyanins rich extracts (C- ARE and RG-ARE) were selected to be tested on normal and melanoma cell lines, due to their different chemical pattern. C- ARE composition consists of cyanidin aglycone glycosylated with different sugars; while RG-ARE contains glucosylated derivatives of five different aglycones. Both C-ARE and RG- ARE anthocyanins reduced proliferation, increased oxidative stress biomarkers and diminished mitochondrial membrane potential in melanoma cells, having no negative influence on normal cells. A synergistic response may be attributed to the five different aglycones present in RG-ARE, which proved to exert greater effects on melanoma cells than the mixture of cyanidin derivatives with different sugars (C-ARE). In con- clusion, C-ARE and RG-ARE anthocyanins may inhibit mel- anoma cell proliferation and increase the level of oxidative stress, with opposite effect on normal cells. Therefore, antho- cyanins might be recommended as active ingredients for cos- metic and nutraceutical industry. Keywords Anthocyanins . Proliferation . MDA . LDH . Mitotracker . Melanoma Introduction Anthocyanins are natural plant pigments, water-soluble, in- tensely colored in blue, purple or red, and found in fruit, veg- etables or cereals [1]. So far more than 635 anthocyanins have been identified, featuring six common aglycones and various types of glycosylation and acylation. The aglycones are the free forms of anthocyanins (de-glycosylated or de-acyl-glyco- sylated), called anthocyanidins (cyanidin, delphinin, pelargonidin, malvidin, petunidin, and peonidin). Different sugar components can be attached to an aglycone nucleus such as glucose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose or arabinose, which are usually conjugated to the anthocyanidin skeleton via the C3 hydroxyl group in ring C. In addition, they may be acylated with different organic acids [2]. Anthocyanins and anthocyanidins are known to exhibit various biological ef- fects, such as antioxidant activity [3–5], antidiabetic [6, 7] or anticarcinogenic potential [8, 9]. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-017-0638-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Dumitriţa Ruginǎ dumitrita.rugina@usamvcluj.ro 1 University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2 Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, 17020 Canakkale, Turkey 3 Babeș-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania 4 Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania 5 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK Plant Foods Hum Nutr DOI 10.1007/s11130-017-0638-x