An Update on Prunus Armeniaca Phytochemical Composition and Biological Activities

Abstract

The irrational use of drugs has led to antimicrobial resistance and tolerance to most commercial drugs posing a global threat to future management of diseases. Hence there is need to search for new drugs from medicinal edible plants to be incorporated in the nutraceutical management of diseases. The challenges facing the utilization of medicinal edible fruits are the lack of sufficient studies to ascertain their quality, safety and efficacy. Prunus armeniaca (Rosaceae) also known as Apricot is a delicious and most commercial traded fruit globally. Prunus armeniaca can either be consumed as a fresh fruit, dried fruit, processed juice, jam or nectar. This review article purposes to give an up-to-date understanding of the Prunus armeniaca medicinal edible fruit biological activities and phytochemical composition that have been outlined in grey and published literature. Literature has been reviewed using search engines such as Google Scholar, HINARI, Science Direct, PubChem, Sciverse, EBSCO and Scopus. Apricot provides a rich source of phytochemicals including but not limited to polyphenols, alkaloids, flavonoid glycosides, saponins, carotenoids, cyanogenic glucosides, fatty acids, sterol derivatives, volatile components, monosaccharides and polysaccharides. These phytochemicals have shown efficacious and safe biological activity. Biological activities such as antimicrobial, inhibitory activity against several enzymes, cardioprotective, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antimutagenic as well as antioxidant activity have been demonstrated. Prunus armeniaca has been utilized in oriental medicine to treat diseases such as leprosy, asthma, leukoderma, bronchitis, constipation, emphysema and nausea. Its safety and toxicity have not been well documented hence the need for evaluation. More studies are needed to elucidated more phytochemicals and biological activities, efficacy, safety and toxicity measures. Prunus armeniaca will provide a source of health promoting health constituent in nutraceutical and new remedy for the emerging resistant human pathogens in the fight against antimicrobial resistance and drug tolerance.