Selected Seeds as Sources of Bioactive Compounds with Diverse Biological Activities

Abstract

Seeds contain a variety of phytochemicals that exhibit a wide range of biological activities. Plant-derived compounds are often investigated for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, hypoglycemic, anti-hypercholesterolemic, anti-hypertensive, anti-platelet, anti-apoptotic, anti-nociceptive, antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, hepatoprotective, or neuroprotective properties. In this review, we have described the chemical content and biological activity of seeds from eight selected plant species-blackberry (Rubus fruticosus L.), black raspberry (Rubus coreanus Miq.), grape (Vitis vinifera L.), Moringa oleifera Lam., sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Sprenger), hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), and sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L). This review is based on studies identified in electronic databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, and SCOPUS. Numerous preclinical, and some clinical studies have found that extracts, fractions, oil, flour, proteins, polysaccharides, or purified chemical compounds isolated from the seeds of these plants display promising, health-promoting effects, and could be utilized in drug development, or to make nutraceuticals and functional foods. Despite that, many of these properties have been studied only in vitro, and it's unsure if their effects would be relevant in vivo as well, so there is a need for more animal studies and clinical trials that would help determine if they could be applied in disease prevention or treatment.

Keywords: active compounds; biological activity; phenolic compounds; phytochemicals; seeds.

Figure 1

Classification of phytochemicals. The figure includes only the compounds that were mentioned in the text. Cojoined grey fields indicate a certain degree of structural similarity, or involvement of one group of phytochemicals or their precursors in the synthesis of the other. Compilation of data: [4,23,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41].

Figure 2

Biological activity of seed extracts, fractions, and oil. The activity of singular isolated compounds was not included, as it is presented in Table 1. The activities that were studied in vivo are marked with red font. The figure is a compilation of data from Section 4 and Section 5. MIC-1, moringa isothiocyanate-1.