Compounds in functional food fenugreek spice exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities

The seeds of fenugreek plant (Trigonella foenum-graecum) are widely used in the preparation of seasonings, pickles, curry powders and dietary supplements. The fenugreek seeds are also used in traditional medicine to relieve the common cold, arthritic pain and high blood sugar. Therefore, we have investigated the functional food quality of fenugreek seeds by determining the lipid peroxidation (LPO) and cyclooxyganase enzyme (COX) inhibitory activities of their hexane, ethyl acetate, methanolic and water extracts using MTT, LPO, COX-1 and -2 enzyme inhibitory assays. The extracts inhibited LPO by 55–95%, COX-1 by 6–87% and COX-2 by 36–70%, respectively, at 250 μg/ml. Bioassay-guided purification of these extracts yielded triglycerides (1–3), fatty acids (4–5), saccharides (6–8) and flavonoid-C-glycosides (9–11). The isolates, excluding the saccharides, inhibited LPO and COX-1 and -2 enzymes between the ranges of 8–89%, 4–51% and 15–70%, respectively, at 25 μg/ml. This is the first report of compounds 1–8 from fenugreek seeds and the biological activities described herein.