Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Novel detection method to rapidly quantify toxic cucurbitacin in Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Food Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) is widely used in India for its medicinal properties. Sometimes its consumption as a fruit or juice can lead to serious health issues due to the presence of toxic cucurbitacins (Cuc) like Cuc B at high concentration. In the present study, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) based method was developed to quantify Cuc B in commercial bottle gourd juice. Cuc B quantification was also done in peel and pulp of fresh bottle gourd fruit. Developed MIP was superior to NIP (non-imprinted polymer) in terms of equilibrium binding, solid-phase extraction, selectivity, and loading capacity of Cuc B. Scatchard plot analysis, adsorption kinetics, and surface area study further strengthen the fact that prepared imprinted polymer was better than NIP for Cuc extraction. TLC and high-resolution LC–MS based analysis revealed that MIP selectively extracts Cuc B from all the studied samples. It was further observed that gamma irradiation and β-glucosidase treatment did not have any significant (p > 0.05) effect on Cuc concentration. The quantity of Cuc in 100 g of juice, peel, and pulp was 2.81 ± 0.26, 3.37 ± 0.31, and 2.39 ± 0.21 mg, respectively. Analytical method validation indicates that the MIP based method was highly linear, precise, and accurate to rapidly quantify toxic Cuc B in bottle gourd consequently assuring its quality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

  • Abbas M, Arshad M, Nisar N, Nisar J, Ghaffar A, Nazir A, Tahir MA, Iqbal M (2017) Muscilage characterization, biochemical and enzymatic activities of laser irradiated Lagenaria siceraria seedlings. J Photochem Photobiol B 173:344–352

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtiar S, Bhawani SA, Shafqat SR (2019) Synthesis and characterization of molecular imprinting polymer for the removal of 2-phenylphenol from spiked blood serum and river water. Chem Biol Technol Agric 6(1):15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campos P, Vilegas JHY, Lancas FM (1997) Behavior of triterpenes from Maytenus aquifolium Martius (“espinheira santa”) upon X-and gamma-rays irradiation. J Radioanal Nucl Ch 224(1–2):99–102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Claude B, Morin P, Lafosse M, Belmont AS, Haupt K (2008) Selective solid-phase extraction of a triterpene acid from a plant extract by molecularly imprinted polymer. Talanta 75(2):344–350

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Darwish-Sayed M, Balbaa SI, Afifi MS (1974) The glycosidal content of the different organs of Citrullus colocynthis. Planta Med 26(07):293–298

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Denver N, Khan S, Stasinopoulos I, Church C, Homer NZ, MacLean MR, Andrew R (2019) Derivatization enhances analysis of estrogens and their bioactive metabolites in human plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Chim Acta 1054:84–94

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farrington K, Magner E, Regan F (2006) Predicting the performance of molecularly imprinted polymers: selective extraction of caffeine by molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction. Anal Chim Acta 566(1):60–68

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gry J, Søborg I, Andersson HC (2006) Cucurbitacins in plant food. Nordic Council of Ministers Chapter 5 TemaNord https://doi.org/10.6027/tn2006-556

  • Ho CH, Ho MG, Ho SP, Ho HH (2014) Bitter bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) toxicity. Int J Emerg Med 46(6):772–775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik U, Aeri V, Mir SR (2015) Cucurbitacins—an insight into medicinal leads from nature. Pharmacogn Rev 9(17):12–18

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaya GI, Melzig MF (2008) Quantitative determination of cucurbitacin E and cucurbitacin I in homoeopathic mother tincture of Gratiola officinalis L. by HPLC. Die Pharmazie- Int J Pharm Sci 63(12):851–853

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • KhatIb KI, Borawake KS (2014) Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria Siceraria) toxicity: a “Bitter” diagnostic dilemma. J Clin Diagn Res 8(12):MD05–MD07

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumbhalkar B, Tamhankar S, Upadhye A (2015) Development of a high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method for quantification of Cucurbitacin B in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) for quality control. JPC-J Planar Chromat 28(4):294–299

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez C, Claude B, Morin P, Max JP, Pena R, Ribet JP (2011) Synthesis and study of a molecularly imprinted polymer for the specific extraction of indole alkaloids from Catharanthus roseus extracts. Anal Chim Acta 683(2):198–205

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Madikizela LM, Chimuka L (2016) Synthesis, adsorption and selectivity studies of a polymer imprinted with naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac. J Environ Chem Eng 4(4):4029–4037

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Perera CO, Perera AD (2019) Technology of processing of horticultural crops. In: Kutz M (ed) Handbook of farm, dairy and food machinery engineering, 3rd edn. Academic Press, New York, pp 300–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Pichon V (2007) Selective sample treatment using molecularly imprinted polymers. J Chromatogr A 1152(1–2):41–53

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rehm S, Enslin PR, Meeuse ADJ, Wessels JH (1957) Bitter principles of the Cucurbitaceae VII—the distribution of bitter principles in this plant family. J Sci Food Agric 8(12):679–686

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rosengren AM, Karlsson BC, Nicholls IA (2013) Consequences of morphology on molecularly imprinted polymer-ligand recognition. Int J Mol Sci 14(1):1207–1217

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shah BN, Seth AK, Nayak BS (2010) Microwave assisted isolation of mucilage from the fruits of Lagenaria siceraria. Der Pharmacia Lett 2(2):202–205

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Söylemez MA, Güven O (2018) Radiation synthesis of molecularly imprinted hydroxyethylmethacrylate-based matrices for glucose recognition. Hacettepe J Biol Chem 46(1):53–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun C, Wang J, Huang J, Yao D, Wang CZ, Zhang L, Hou S, Chen L, Yuan CS (2017) The multi-template molecularly imprinted polymer based on SBA-15 for selective separation and determination of panax notoginseng saponins simultaneously in biological samples. Polymers 9(12):653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tripathi J, Variyar AP, Mishra PK, Variyar PS (2016) Impact of radiation processing on the stability of cucurbitacin glycosides in ready-to-cook (RTC) pumpkin during storage. LWT-Food Sci Technol 73:239–242

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Tang L, Guo Y, Yan F, Chen F (2001) Determination of Momordicoside A in bitter melon by high-performance liquid chromatography after solid-phase extraction. Chromatographia 53(7–8):372–374

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Z, Zhu W, Gao M, Wu C, Yang C, Yang J, Wu G, Yang B, Kuang H (2017) Simultaneous determination of cucurbitacin B and cucurbitacin E in rat plasma by UHPLC-MS/MS: a pharmacokinetics study after oral administration of cucurbitacin tablets. J Chromatogr B 1065–1066:63–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang X, Tanaka M, Peixoto HS, Wink M (2017) Cucurbitacins: elucidation of their interactions with the cytoskeleton. PeerJ 5:e3357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei S, Mizaikoff B (2007) Binding site characteristics of 17β-estradiol imprinted polymers. Biosens Bioelectron 23(2):201–209

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu X, Wang X, Lu W, Wang X, Li J, You H, Xiong L, Chen L (2016) Water-compatible temperature and magnetic dual-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers for recognition and extraction of bisphenol A. J Chromatogr A 1435(2016):30–38

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao Y, Zhao Q, Wu Q, Chang J, Xue H, Liu C, Liu X (2018) A new sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of cucurbitacin B in rat plasma: application to an absolute bioavailability study. RSC Adv 8(54):30978–30985

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ye L, Mosbach K (2001) Molecularly imprinted microspheres as antibody binding mimics. React Funct Polym 48(1–3):149–157

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng S, She Y, Jiao B, Liu G, Wang J, Su X, Ma X, Jin M, Jin F, Wang S (2015) Molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction and simultaneous determination of four tropane alkaloids from Przewalskia tangutica Maxim. fruit extracts using LC-MS/MS. RSC Adv 5(115):94997–95006

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu QZ, Haupt K, Knopp D, Niessner R (2002) Molecularly imprinted polymer for metsulfuron-methyl and its binding characteristics for sulfonylurea herbicides. Anal Chim Acta 468(2):217–227

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400 085, India

    Chaturbhuj Kumar Saurabh, Sunil Kumar Ghosh & Bhaskar Sanyal

Authors
  1. Chaturbhuj Kumar Saurabh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sunil Kumar Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bhaskar Sanyal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

CKS: conceptualization, experimentation, writing—original draft. SKG: Supervision. BS: Writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sunil Kumar Ghosh.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 40 kb)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Saurabh, C.K., Ghosh, S.K. & Sanyal, B. Novel detection method to rapidly quantify toxic cucurbitacin in Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd). J Food Sci Technol 60, 160–170 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-022-05600-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-022-05600-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation