BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Cola Nitida: A Potential Anticancer Agent in Hepatocarcinogenesis
Prof. Dr. Fauziah Othman
Mohammad Kadiavr, Asmah Rahmat and W. M. Z. Wan Nor Izzah
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8947 2315; fauziah@medic.upm.edu.my
Sustainable Biocatalytic Synthesis of Xylitol Sugar Esters using Multivariate
Chemometrics Analysis
Prof. Dr. Mahiran Basri
Atena Adnani, Mohd. Basyaruddin Abdul Rahman and Abu Bakar Salleh
Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7266; mahiran@science.upm.edu.my
289
Science, Technology & Engineering
Hepatocarcinogenesis is a primary malignancy (cancer) of the liver. It can be defined as precancerous lesion
which will develop into the most common primary malignancy of the liver: Hepatocellular Carcinoma. It is
the fifth most frequent neoplasm and ranks third on the list of most lethal cancers. Male Sprague Dawley rats
were divided to eleven groups. Hepatocarcinogenesis was induced in seven groups of rats by employing two
carcinogen systems: an intraperitoneal injection of 200 mg/kg DEN as initiator, followed by 0.02% of AAF in
rat chow to promote carcinogenesis. The effect of 1, 2.5 and 5% cola nitida extract on hepatocarcinogenesis
induced male rats and normal ones was investigated by using application of body weight, enzyme tumor markers
activity examination, histological evaluations, electron microscopy study, molecular and immunofluorescence
investigation. In addition, elemental analysis of cola nuts was conducted using energy dispersive x-ray
microanalysis which revealed that Cola nut has beneficial medicinal properties. In addition, histological
evaluation of rat liver with light and transmission electron microscope revealed that DEN/AAF induced and
untreated rats group showed higher lesion score as compared to treated ones. Tumour marker enzyme activity
which was examined for cytosolic GST, GGT plasma and microsomal GGT, illustrated that cola nut extract has
the effect to decrease their level of activity. The TUNEL assay and Real-Time PCR were also conducted to show
the influence of cola nut extract on the apoptosis process and Alpha-Fetoprotein gene expression. The results
indicate that, Cola nitida could act better than commercial drugs as an anticancer agent, which could inhibit or
slow down hepatocarcinogenesis induced by DEN/AAF in a rat’s liver.
Keywords: Hepatocarcinogenesis, cola nut, elemental analysis, histology study, TEM, tunel assay, real-time PCR, enzyme
tumour marker, lesion scoring
Sugar esters are non-ionic, non-toxic, odorless and tasteless surfactants with good emulsifying and dispersing
properties. These properties are excellent for use in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food products. Traditional
chemical synthesis of sugar esters is based on a high temperature and pressure esterification between sugars
and fatty acids with acidic or metal catalysts. In the recent years, application of enzymes has emerged as an
interesting alternative, since enzymatic synthesis has several advantages over chemical synthesis such as high
selectivity, mild reaction conditions, and low energy consumption. Furthermore, optimisation of the reaction
could be performed to increase the efficiency of the process. Chemometric techniques such as Taguchi orthogonal
array method and artificial neural network (ANN) are powerful and flexible tools that are well suited to modeling
of biochemical processes. In this research, Taguchi method and ANN were used for modelling and optimisation of
lipase-catalysed esterification of xylitol and different fatty acids in solvent-based and solvent free systems using
Novozym 435 .Various reaction parameters including xylitol: fatty acid molar ratio, amount of enzyme, amount
of molecular sieve, temperature, reaction time and solvent volume affecting the synthesis of xylitol esters were
studied. Good correlation between predicted and actual values implied the good generalisation of the developed
models and their capability to predict the conversion. High percentage conversion (>88%) of esterification under
optimised conditions was achieved. In addition, production of esters in solvent free system showed that the
relationship of reaction parameters and response was satisfactorily represented by the models for all xylitol esters.
Maximum conversion (>74%) was obtained with longer chain length fatty acids. The results of this research
would be useful for several industries especially food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries that look for more
environmentally acceptable and sustainable processes and products and also suggest significant cost savings.
Keywords: Xylitol, fatty acids, esterification, enzyme, optimisation, Taguchi method, artificial neural network