Chemical characterization, anticancer, antioxidant and anti-obesity activities with molecular docking studies of Pleurotus ostreatus biomass exposed to moist heat

Changes in the pharmacological properties of natural products may depend on the cooking processes; therefore, Pleurotus ostreatus was immediately subjected to moist heat cooking. Molecular characterization identified P. ostreatus with accession number PQ429007. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed that the extract of uncooked P. ostreatus (ECPS) contained high concentrations of catechin (75,556.07 µg/g), gallic acid (66,183.14 µg/g), naringenin (50,021.85 µg/g), hesperetin (22.78 µg/g), and quercetin (68.54 µg/g). In contrast, the concentrations in the extract of cooked P. ostreatus (EUCPS) decreased to 52,212.40, 51,212.19, 34,238.17, 2.67, 27.67, 16,598.19, and 9778.36 µg/g, respectively. ECPS demonstrated greater efficacy than EUCPS when tested on normal WI38 cells, HeLa, and PC3 cancer cells. Both extracts showed low toxicity to normal WI38 cells, with IC₅₀ values of 193.42 ± 1.54 µg/mL for ECPS and 187.69 ± 2.81 µg/mL for EUCPS. In comparison, IC₅₀ values for PC3 cells were 107.4 ± 2.57 µg/mL for ECPS and 143.91 ± 1.7 µg/mL for EUCPS, while HeLa cells showed IC₅₀ values of 109.71 ± 0.22 µg/mL for ECPS and 154.17 ± 1.93 µg/mL for EUCPS. Both ECPS and EUCPS exhibited antioxidant activity, with IC₅₀ values of 16.17 µg/mL and 49.31 µg/mL, respectively. The anti-obesity activity provides IC₅₀ values of 25.84 µg/mL for ECPS, 37.13 µg/mL for EUCPS, and 6.93 µg/mL for orlistat. Molecular docking studies demonstrated strong binding affinities with catechin exhibiting scores of − 6.3204 and − 6.20723 kcal/mol against PC3 PDB ID: 2Q7L and 3PE6, respectively. Gallic acid displayed binding scores of − 5.27521 and − 4.81822 kcal/mol, respectively.