Capsaicinoid: A potential antioxidant with close interactions against human iNOS in docking study

Abstract

Capsicum chinense, popularly known as Bhut jolokia, was collected from three states of North-East India and was studied for variation in its pungency principal viz. capsaicinoid content and antioxidant activity as well as its inter-action affinity with human inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) active sites. HPLC fingerprinting analysis showed capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin as the major active compounds present in the capsaicinoid extract of C. chinense. In comparison to dihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin was found in high amount. The pungency range was observed between 3, 47,301 SHU to 8, 45,296 SHU in the collected samples. The capsaicinoid extract exhibited antioxidant activity with 46.24 ± 15.34% scavenging of DPPH free radical at 100 ppm. The dock-ing analysis showed that capsaicin interacted more with the active sites of iNOS compared to dihydrocapsaicin. Present investigation revealed considerable difference in capsaicinoid content among the samples collected from three states of North-East India. The capsaicinoid showed noticeable antioxidant activity with potent binding affinity to the active sites of iNOS in the molecular docking analysis.