Study on the Potential Antitumor Activity of Cookies Enriched with Sambucus nigra L., Aronia melanocarpa, Hippophae rhamnoides L., and Crataegus L., on WM793 Melanoma and MCF-7 Breast Cell Lines

The number of deaths due to malignant neoplasms is increasing year by year. For this reason, new ways of preventing them and supporting treatment are being sought. One of them is adding plant extracts to food to increase its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerogenic activity. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of different wild-grown fruits (chokeberry, elderberry, hawthorn and sea-buckthorn) added to wheat-flour cookies on the proliferation of: (i) normal BJ lines (fibroblasts); (ii) tumor cells of the MCF-7 (breast cancer) and (iii) WM793 (melanoma) lines. Methanol-acetone extracts were prepared from previously baked wheat-flour cookies fortified with fruits in order to use them in the further part of the research to prepare mixtures with concentrations of 0.5 mg/mL; 1 mg/mL; 1.5 mg/mL; 2.5 mg/mL. The viability and cytotoxicity of normal and neoplastic cells was examined. It was observed that the WM793 melanoma tumor line appeared to be more susceptible to the action of the tested extracts with the addition of selected wild-grown fruits compared to MCF7 breast cancer cells. Moreover, the greatest significant effect on the inhibition of WM793 cells among extracts with a concentration of 2.5 mg/mL was proved in the case of sea-buckthorn (p < 0.05). In terms of the inhibition of the MCF7 line, the effect was proved only in the case of sea buckthorn (p < 0.05), while the viability of these neoplastic cells was at most affected by elderberry and chokeberry extracts (p < 0.05).