Comparative Study of Bioactivity and Safety Evaluation of Ethanolic Extracts of Zanthoxylum schinifolium Fruit and Pericarp

The fruit and pericarp of Zanthoxylum schinifolium (ZS) have been used in traditional medicine; however, few studies have characterized ZS fruit and pericarp. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated the safety of ZS fruit (ZSF) and pericarp (ZSP) extracts and compared their bioactivity. To evaluate the safety of ZSF and ZSP, mutagenicity, cytotoxicity, and oxidative stress assays were performed and nontoxic concentration ranges were obtained. ZSP was found to be superior to ZSF in terms of its antimutagenic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. In the S9 mix, the mutation inhibition rate of ZSP was close to 100% at concentrations exceeding 625 µg·plate(−1) for both the TA98 and TA100 strains. ZSP exhibited efficient DPPH (IC(50) = 75.6 ± 6.1 µg·mL(−1)) and ABTS (IC(50) = 57.4 ± 6 µg·mL(−1)) scavenging activities. ZSP inhibited the release of cytokines, involved in IL-1β (IC(50) = 134.4 ± 7.8), IL-6 (IC(50) = 262.8 ± 11.2), and TNF-α (IC(50) = 223.8 ± 5.8). These results indicate that ZSP contains a higher amount of biochemicals than ZSF, or that ZSP contains unique biochemicals. In conclusion, for certain physiological activities, the use of ZSP alone may be more beneficial than the combined use of ZSF and ZSP.