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. 2021 May 10;10(5):1038.
doi: 10.3390/foods10051038.

The Influence of Red Cabbage Extract Nanoencapsulated with Brassica Plasma Membrane Vesicles on the Gut Microbiome of Obese Volunteers

Paula Garcia-Ibañez  1   2 , Carles Roses  3 , Agatha Agudelo  4   5 , Fermin I Milagro  6   7   8 , Ana M Barceló  3 , Blanca Viadel  9 , Juan Antonio Nieto  9 , Diego A Moreno  2 , Micaela Carvajal  1
Affiliations

The Influence of Red Cabbage Extract Nanoencapsulated with Brassica Plasma Membrane Vesicles on the Gut Microbiome of Obese Volunteers

Paula Garcia-Ibañez et al. Foods. .

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of the red cabbage extracts on the bioaccessibility of their isothiocyanates, and their effect on the intestinal microbiota using a dynamic model of human digestion treated with the gut microbiome of obese adults. The elicitation of red cabbage plants with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) duplicated the content of glucosinolates (GSLs) in the plant organs used for elaborating the encapsulated formula. The use of plasma membrane vesicles, according to a proper methodology and technology, showed a high retention of sulforaphane (SFN) and indol-3-carbinol (I3C) over the course of the 14-day digestion study. The microbiome was scarcely affected by the treatments in terms of microbiota composition or the Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio, but a 3 to 4-fold increase was observed in the production of butyric acid with the encapsulated extract treatment. Based on our pilot red cabbage extract study, the consumption of this extract, mainly encapsulated, may play a potential role in the management of obesity in adults.

Keywords: encapsulation; gut microbiome; isothiocyanates; obesity; red cabbage; stability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Agatha Agudelo is an employee at Sakata Seeds Iberica SL. The grant obtained by the company from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under the programme “Convocatoria de Programa Estratégico CIEN”, Ref. IDI-20170842, supported this research.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of the relative abundance of (A) sulforaphane (SFN), (B) indole-3-carbinol, and (C) iberin, when feeding the dynamic colonic-gastrointestinal digester (D-CGID) with the red cabbage aqueous extract, both free and nanoencapsulated (n = 3 ± SE). The reference extract was taken as 100% and a two-way ANOVA analysis with an HSD Tukey’s test as a post hoc test was performed. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Representation of the alpha diversity index obtained from the inoculation (A) and each reactor: (B) ascending colon, (C) transversal colon, and (D) descending colon, before and after the treatment for 14 days with the red cabbage aqueous extract in its free and nanoencapsulated forms (n = 3 ± SE). Data were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA and the HSD Tukey’s test as a post hoc test. Different letters mean statistically significant differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relative presence (% of sequences identified) of the six most abundant phyla in the human colon in the dynamic in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation model when fed with (A) free red cabbage aqueous extract, and (B) nanoencapsulated red cabbage aqueous extract. Data were obtained from the stabilization period (no treatment) and after 14 days of treatment. Represented data are means ± SD. Different letters mean statistically significant differences in the HSD Tukey’s test (p < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Butyric acid production (mg·Kg−1 fermentation fluid) analysed in the stabilization period and after 14 days of treatment with the red cabbage aqueous extract (free and nanoencapsulated) in the (A) ascending colon, (B) transversal colon, and (C) descending colon. Represented data are means ± SD. Different letters mean statistically significant differences in the HSD Tukey’s test (p < 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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