Metabolite Profiling of Selected Mauritian Endemic Fruits

Endemic plants’ fruits contain flesh and seeds that are metabolically dense organs storing concentrated bioactive compounds, yet they remain frequently overlooked in phytochemical research. Mauritian endemic plants represent a unique reservoir of biodiversity with significant potential for the discovery of bioactive compounds. Among these, Tambourissa ficus (Monimiaceae), Diospyros tessellaria (Ebenaceae), and Sideroxylon cinereum (Sapotaceae) produce edible fruits consumed by humans and local fauna without reported adverse effects. However, the phytochemical composition of these fruits remains largely unexplored. The current study aims at identifying volatile compounds of the methanolic seed extracts using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and evaluating the cytotoxicity of these extracts in HGL5 ovarian cell lines using the Alamar Blue cell viability assay. ANOVA was performed followed by Dunnett's post hoc test using GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software, CA, USA). The results were reported as the mean standard deviation of three analytical triplicates with significance set at p ≤ 0.05. GC–MS analysis of each extracts identified 15 phytochemical constituents. The predominant compounds in the fruits flesh were β-sitosterol (44.33%), 1,4-naphthoquinone, 6-ethyl-2,5-dihydroxy- (51.18%), and lanosta-8,24-dien-3-ol acetate (52.11%). Other notable constituents included β-chamigrene, plumbagin, stigmasterol, γ-sitosterol, oleanenyl acetate, friedelane, and dammaradienyl acetate. Overall, the fruit flesh exhibited a diverse phytochemical profile dominated by sterols, quinones, terpenoids, and triterpenoids, suggesting potential bioactive properties. These compounds have diverse potential for medicinal, nutritional, and cosmetic applications. No statistically significant reduction in cell viability was observed (p > 0.05), indicating a favourable safety profile. The rich profile of triterpenoids and phytosterols, highlights the potential of Mauritian fruits as sources of pharmacologically active compounds rather than solely nutritional lipids.