Phytochemical Composition of Extracts Prepared from Dietary Cucurbits and their Cytoprotective Efficacies against Hydrogen Peroxide Induced Oxidative Stress in GI Cell-INT407

Plants of dietary nature contain rich sources of nutrients and secondary metabolites of therapeutic importance. Cucurbits belong to Cucurbitaceae family and are rich sources of nutritional and medicinal compounds [1-4]. Cucurbitaceae consists of nearly 100 genera and over 750 species [5-8]. Dietary intervention of these groups of plants can ameliorate various types of diseases through their prebiotics, modulation of proton pumping ATPase activity, antioxidant and immunomodulatory actions [1,2,4,9]. Despite of having immense potential to augment human health through their nutritional and medicinal effects [1-7], these group of plants have yet to be considered as potential therapeutic modalities by pharmaceutical industries and biomedical research funding agencies.