Abstract:
Background: Annona muricata (soursop) is the most widely grown variety of more than 70
species of Annona which belongs to the family Annonaceae. Soursop fruits have been used in
several traditional medicinal practices in the worldwide including diarrhoea, liver diseases,
heart diseases and gut parasites. The fruit extracts are now being investigated to identify various
beneficial pharmacological activities.
Objectives: To gather details on secondary metabolites of A. muricata fruit and their
pharmacological activities, based on various research studies reported in the literature.
Methods: The published scientific literature was reviewed through the search engines of
ScienceDirect, PubMed, Springer, and Google Scholar by following the keywords of “Annona
muricata”, “secondary metabolites” and “pharmacological activities”.
Results: It was reported that A. muricata fruit contains acetogenins, alkaloids and phenolics as
secondary metabolites. Annonacin is the peredominant acetogenin reported in A. muricata fruit.
Annonamuricin A, annonamuricin B, annonamuricin C, annonamuricin D, muricenin, muricin J,
muricin K, muricin L, muricin N, Cis-annoreticuin, epomuricenins-A, epomuricenins-B,
sabadelin, epomusenin-A, epomusenin-B, epomurinin-A and epomurinin-B are also reported in
the fruit. Cinnamic acid derivatives and p-coumaric acids are reported in A. muricata fruit as the
major phenolic compounds while caffeoylquinic acid, dicaffeoylquinic acid,
dihydrokaempferol-hexoside, fisetin, kaempferol, kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside, luteolin- 3-7-di O-glucoside, morin and myricetin were also reported additionally. Alkaloids that were identified
from A. muricata fruit include annonaine, nornuciferine, asimilobine, N-methylcoculaurine and
reticulin were reported. Essential oils, phytosterols and aliphatic compounds were also reported
in A. muricata fruit pulp. Several in-vitro and in-vivo studies conducted to determine the
pharmacological activities of secondary metabolites of A. muricata fruit were mentioned in the
literature. Acetogenins had revealed the antioxidant, anticancer and antidiabetic activities.
Phenolics have been reported for the antioxidant, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory,
antiparasitic and antihypertensive activities. Phenolics were suggested as the major secondary
metabolite responsible for the antioxidant activity of A. muricata fruit. Alkaloids reported to
have antidepressive and cytotoxic activities. Antioxidant activity has also been reported by the
essential oils of fruit pulp.
Conclusions: It is deliberated to sum-up that A. muricata fruit is rich in different secondary
metabolites with known beneficial pharmacological activities.
