The anti-cancer effects of various chickpea extracts

Several studies indicate that legumes may contain many compounds which exert‐anti‐cancer effects. Chickpea has not been as widely explored as other legumes such as soy‐bean and the common bean, despite the literature suggesting that chickpea may exert even more potent anti‐cancer effects. The current study is designed to investigate and compare the anti‐cancer effects of chickpea aquafaba and chickpea polyphenol extracts on colorectal cell lines. Anti‐cancer activity were examined with the following methods: Resazurin‐red cytotoxicity assay, ApoPercentage, cell migration assays and use MUSE flow‐cytometry to investigate Annexin V and 3,7 caspase activation. Cytotoxicity assay results show that extracts had a selective cytotoxic effect on colorectal cancer cell lines, but not on normal colon cells. Apoptosis assays found that the cytotoxicity was due to the induction of apoptosis, and the most efficient concentration was 500µg/ml. Chickpea extracts were also used in a cell migration assay which analyses whether the extract may have any anti‐metastatic effects. The preliminary findings show that chickpea extracts do exert pro‐apoptotic and may have an anti‐metastatic effect.