Correction: Chemical Profiling and Pharmaceutical and Biological Activities of Methanolic Extract of Citrullus colocynthis L. Seeds Collected from the Arid Zone of Qassim, Saudi Arabia against Aphis craccivora

Abstract

This Correction refers to: Abdallah EM, Ali AMH, Hashem HF, Mujawah AA, Elsharkawy ER, (2024). Chemical Profiling and Pharmaceutical and Biological Activities of Methanolic Extract of Citrullus colocynthis L. Seeds Collected from the Arid Zone of Qassim, Saudi Arabia against Aphis craccivora. Advancements in Life Sciences, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.62940/als.v11i4.3135

Following an internal audit conducted after post-publication quality concerns were raised, the Editorial Office identified citation and reference-list inconsistencies in the above article, including references cited in support of statements they do not address and in-text citations with no matching bibliography entry. The corresponding author acknowledged the errors, carried out a full citation audit of the published article, and submitted a point-by-point response together with a corrected manuscript. The corrections below, which include further items found during that audit, do not alter the experimental dataset, numerical results, tables, figures, statistical outcomes, or the principal conclusions of the study.

Citation corrections

• Ref. [13]: Removed from the plant-pesticide statement (source concerned antioxidants, not pesticides); statement now supported by new Ref. [4], a review of plant-based biopesticides. Ref. [13] retained where it is appropriately cited for antioxidant context.
• Ref. [14]: Removed from the pesticide/insecticidal claim (source concerned oxidative stress); replaced by Ref. [4]. Ref. [14] retained for its correct oxidative-stress context.
• Ref. [15]: Medicinal-use statement rewritten and now supported by new Refs. [5] and [6], two reviews specific to C. colocynthis. Ref. [15] retained for general antioxidant background.
• Ref. [16]: Removed from the medicinal-use claim (source concerned insecticidal triterpenes in Meliaceae); replaced by Refs. [5,6]. Ref. [16] retained in the pest-control context, where it is relevant to plant-derived insecticidal compounds.
• Ref. [17]: Drought-tolerance sentence deleted, as it was not essential to the study rationale (source concerned Ginkgo antifeedant activity, not Cucurbitaceae drought tolerance). Ref. [17] retained in the natural-antifeedant context.
• Ref. [18]: Fruit-morphology description replaced with a concise botanical description supported by new Ref. [6]. Ref. [18] retained in Methods for the geographic (Wadi Ar-Rumah) statement.
• Ref. [19]: Removed from the morphology statement (source concerned Hyphaene thebaica fruit pulp); replaced by Ref. [6]. Ref. [19] retained in Methods for the extraction procedure.
• Ref. [20]: Seed-composition statement revised to remove an unsupported fixed percentage; it is now supported by the C. colocynthis nutritional and phytochemical reviews Refs. [5,6,7]. Ref. [20] retained in Methods for qualitative phytochemical procedures.
• Ref. [23]: Statement on the anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity of cucurbitacins rewritten and now supported by the dedicated cucurbitacin reviews Refs. [9,10]. Ref. [23] retained in Methods for the flavonoid method.
• Ref. [24]: Removed from the cucurbitacin statement (source concerned Crassocephalum crepidioides); replaced by Refs. [9,10]. Two author-name attributions in the Methods (DPPH and reducing-power assays) that wrongly linked Ref. [24] to authors who are not on that paper have also been removed, and the source is now cited without naming them.
• Ref. [25]: Phytochemical/biological-activity statements rewritten and now supported by C. colocynthis-specific literature, Refs. [5,6,8]. Ref. [25] retained for the antibacterial-zone interpretation.
• Refs. [32]–[34]: Missing bibliography entries restored and in-text citations corrected. Ref. [32] reports the antimicrobial inhibition-zone pattern discussed in the article, and Ref. [33] supports the statement that seed extract was less effective than other plant parts in that comparison. The sentence citing Ref. [34] was reworded to state more generally that C. colocynthis extracts have shown antibacterial and antifungal activity against multiple bacterial and fungal strains, so that it matches that source exactly.

New/restored references

• [4] Khursheed A, Rather MA, Jain V, Wani AR, Rasool S, Nazir R, Malik NA, Majid SA. Plant based natural products as potential ecofriendly and safer biopesticides: A comprehensive overview of their advantages over conventional pesticides, limitations and regulatory aspects. Microbial Pathogenesis, (2022); 173(Pt A): 105854. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2022.105854.
• [5] Hussain AI, Rathore HA, Sattar MZA, Chatha SAS, Sarker SD, Gilani AH. Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad (bitter apple fruit): a review of its phytochemistry, pharmacology, traditional uses and nutritional potential. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, (2014); 155(1): 54–66. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2014.06.011.
• [6] Li QY, Munawar M, Saeed M, Shen JQ, Khan MS, Noreen S, Alagawany M, Naveed M, Madni A, Li CX. Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad (Bitter Apple Fruit): Promising Traditional Uses, Pharmacological Effects, Aspects, and Potential Applications. Frontiers in Pharmacology, (2022); 12: 791049. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.791049.
• [7] Rao V, Poonia A. Citrullus colocynthis (bitter apple): bioactive compounds, nutritional profile, nutraceutical properties and potential food applications: a review. Food Production, Processing and Nutrition, (2023); 5: 4. doi: 10.1186/s43014-022-00118-9.
• [9] Cai Y, Fang X, He C, Li P, Xiao F, Wang Y, Chen M. Cucurbitacins: A Systematic Review of the Phytochemistry and Anticancer Activity. American Journal of Chinese Medicine, (2015); 43(7): 1331–1350. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X15500755.
• [10] Silvestre GFG, de Lucena RP, Alves HS. Cucurbitacins and the Immune System: Update in Research on Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, and Immunomodulatory Mechanisms. Current Medicinal Chemistry, (2022); 29(21): 3774–3789. doi: 10.2174/0929867329666220107153253.
• [11] Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. The Lancet, (2022); 399(10325): 629–655. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02724-0.
• [12] Miethke M, Pieroni M, Weber T, et al. Towards the sustainable discovery and development of new antibiotics. Nature Reviews Chemistry, (2021); 5(10): 726–749. doi: 10.1038/s41570-021-00313-1.
• [21] Balouiri M, Sadiki M, Ibnsouda SK. Methods for in vitro evaluating antimicrobial activity: A review. Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis, (2016); 6(2): 71–79. doi: 10.1016/j.jpha.2015.11.005.
• [22] Blainski A, Lopes GC, de Mello JCP. Application and Analysis of the Folin Ciocalteu Method for the Determination of the Total Phenolic Content from Limonium brasiliense L. Molecules, (2013); 18(6): 6852–6865. doi: 10.3390/molecules18066852.
• [32] Gurudeeban S, Rajamanickam E, Ramanathan T, Satyavani K. Antimicrobial activity of Citrullus colocynthis in Gulf of Mannar. International Journal of Current Research, (2010); 2: 78–81.
• [33] Hameed B, Ali Q, Hafeez MM, Malik A. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of fruit, seed and root extracts of Citrullus colocynthis plant. Biological and Clinical Sciences Research Journal, (2020); 2020: 33. doi: 10.54112/bcsrj.v2020i1.33.
• [34] Hany O, Neelam A. Antimicrobial Activity of Citrullus colocynthis (Bitter Melon). Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, (2020); 27(5): 21156–21158. doi: 10.26717/BJSTR.2020.27.004576.
• [36] Marzouk B, Marzouk Z, Decor R, Edziri H, Haloui E, Fenina N, Aouni M. Antibacterial and anticandidal screening of Tunisian Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. from Medenine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, (2009); 125(2): 344–349. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2009.04.025.
• [39] Yousaf HK, Shan T, Chen X, Ma K, Shi X, Desneux N, Biondi A, Gao X. Impact of the secondary plant metabolite Cucurbitacin B on the demographical traits of the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii. Scientific Reports, (2018); 8: 16473. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34821-w.

These corrections concern citations, references and the wording of individual statements only. They do not affect the study’s data, numerical results, tables, figures, or principal experimental findings. The Editorial Office apologizes for these errors and thanks the corresponding author for his prompt cooperation in resolving them.

Correction Published

20 October 2026: The necessary corrections have been carried out in the Version of Record.