Bioactivities of Tamarindus Indica Fruit Pulp

Oxidative damage caused by free radicals is thought to be a causative factor in many diseases and ageing. Numerous studies have revealed the ability of antioxidants to intercept this damage. Tamarindus indica L. (T. indica) or locally known as asam jawa, belongs to the family of Leguminosae. Initial analyses in the lab showed that the methanol extract of the fruit pulp consistently has high polyphenolic content and antioxidant activities. Catechin was detected in the fruit pulp extract. Gene expression analyses revealed a significant regulation of genes that are involved in stress response, lipid metabolism and cell cycle regulation. The analysed data have been mainly published in Genes Nutr. (Razali et al., 2010) and Food Chem. (Razali et al., 2012). Prior to this reported gene expression-regulating activity, we claimed the therapeutic use of T. indica fruit pulp to possess antioxidant, anti-cancer and hypolipidaemic properties (patent: MY-158583-A, 2016). As such, this study should be of interest to a broad readership especially natural product researchers, pharmacologists, nutritional biochemists and metabolomics bioinformaticians.