*2.1. Chemicals*

The chemicals and drugs were of pharmacopoeia/AnalaR or HPLC grade as required by the nature of the experiment and extraction. They were purchased from the licensed distributors of the Central Drug House (New Delhi, India), Himedia Labs (Mumbai, India) and Sigma-Aldrich chemicals (Bangalore, India).

## *2.2. Procurement of the Research Raw Materials*

*C. melo* (family: Cucurbitaceae) fruit (Figure 1) were purchased from Vadanerkunam (Tindivanam T.K., Villupuram District, Tamilnadu, India) and identified and authenticated by experts of the Department of Botany, St. Berchmans College, Changanacherry, Kottayam-686101, India.

**Figure 1.** Muskmelon is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, genus *Cucumis*, which comprises about 118 genera and 825 species. The fruit has been cultivated in China since 2000 BC. Diverse fruit forms have evolved around the world and are widely spread in subtropical and tropical regions. China and the USA are the highest producers of muskmelons.

### *2.3. Fruit Extract Preparation*

The fruit of *C. melo* were cut into pieces with a stainless-steel knife. The mean dimensions were 1.8 cm diameter × 3.5 to 4.0 cm cylinders [14] and weighed approximately 100 g (including the seeds). These were dried in an oven at 60 ◦C. The dried fruit were then comminuted to a coarse powder and then passed through a No.10 sieve.

#### *2.4. Preparation of MECM*

The coarse powder was extracted with methanol (absolute) by a hot continuous percolation process. A total of 100 g of the dry powder was packed in a filter paper thimble each time and extracted in a Soxhlet extractor (five cycles/day for three consecutive days). The marc was then further extracted until it was colourless with 95% methanol. The process was repeated with fresh powder and the entire alcoholic extractives were mixed. Excess solvent was recovered by distillation under a reduced pressure and evaporated under a vacuum to form a soft extract, which was then weighed, re-heated (ensuring it was free of

alcohol) and again weighed. The yield was calculated as the percentage weight per weight (*w*/*w*) of powder.

Product yield = (the total weight of extract obtained ÷ the total weight of the dry material used for extraction) × 100.
