Abstract

Papaya is the fruit of the Carica papaya plant. Several secondary metabolites from the Carica genus have been reported to exhibit interesting biological activities. Its leaves are normally considered discarded. The research aimed to examine the antiproliferative and antioxidant effects of Carica papaya leaves from four different cultivars-Cocoa, Holland, Khaek Dam, and Red Lady and evaluate the chemical composition of the extracts through GC−MS analysis. The MTT assay evaluated the antiproliferative activity of all extracts. Red Lady exhibited higher effectiveness against MCF-7, SW620, and Vero cell lines compared to Khaek Dam, with IC50 values of 90.88 ± 0.39, 258.45 ± 2.16, and 301.73 ± 0.73 µg/mL, respectively. Cocoa and Holland extracts showed no cytotoxic effects on the mentioned cell lines. Antioxidant activity, measured through DPPH radical scavenging assays, revealed that Red Lady had the highest antioxidant capacity (IC50 163.87 µg/mL), followed by Khaek Dam, Cocoa, and Holland. As a result, the GC−MS analysis concentrated on the extracts of Lady and Khaek Dam. The chromatograms revealed that the extracts from Red Lady displayed 23 components, while those from Khaek Dam contained 22. The primary metabolite produced in Khaek Dam were n-hexadecanoic acid (17.53%), 1-heptadecanecarboxylic acid (6.86%), and loliolide (5.58%), while in Red Lady 9-octadecenamide (20.82%), n-hexadecanoic acid (8.26%), palmitoleamide (5.43%) were produced. This indicates a difference in the chemical composition between the two cultivars. It is clear from this study that the chosen species included a range of potent phytochemicals with antiproliferative characteristics.