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. 2023 Mar 22:6:100490.
doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100490. eCollection 2023.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) microgreen prevents the formation of advanced glycation end products in model systems and breads

Qian Zhou  1 , Wenxin Liang  2 , Jiaqian Wan  2 , Mingfu Wang  1
Affiliations

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) microgreen prevents the formation of advanced glycation end products in model systems and breads

Qian Zhou et al. Curr Res Food Sci. .

Abstract

The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in daily diets poses a great threat to human health, since AGEs are closely related to some chronic metabolic diseases. In this study, we investigated the antiglycative capabilities of some popular microgreens in chemical model. Our data indicated that baby spinach (Spinacia oleracea) had the highest antiglycative activity during 4-wks incubation, with antioxidation being the main action route. Moreover, a bread model was set up to evaluate its antiglycative potential in real food model. The results showed that the fortification of baby spinach in bread significantly inhibited AGEs formation, with acceptable taste and food quality. Further study revealed that the antiglycative components were mainly distributed in leaves, which were separated via column chromatography and tentatively identified as chlorophyll derivatives. In summary, this study highlighted the antiglycative benefits of baby spinach which can be developed into healthy functional foods.

Keywords: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs); Bread; Functional foods; Microgreen; Spinach (Spinacia oleracea).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Antiglycative potential of selected microgreens under long-term incubation. Relative AGEs fluorescence in Glu-BSA model (A) and Fru-BSA model (B). AGEs inhibition rate in Glu-BSA model (C) and Fru-BSA model (D). N = 5. Glu-BSA model, glucose-bovine serum albumin model; Fru-BSA model, fructose-bovine serum albumin model; AGEs, advanced glycation end products.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Antiglycative mechanism analysis of selected microgreens. A: DPPH scavenging activity. B: MGO-trapping activity. Columns with different characters are significantly different (p < 0.05). N = 3. DPPH, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl; MGO, methylglyoxal.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The comparison of antiglycative activity between baby and mature spinach in Glu-BSA model (A) and Fru-BSA model (B). Columns with different characters are significantly different (p < 0.05). N = 3. Glu-BSA model, glucose-bovine serum albumin model; Fru-BSA model, fructose-bovine serum albumin model.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Sensory evaluation and food quality measurements of baby spinach-fortified bread. A: Represented picture of bread fortified with/without baby spinach leaves. B: Radar chat of sensory evaluation (N = 10). C–E: Lab value (N = 3). F: Calculated ΔE value (N = 3). H: Firmness (N = 10). Columns with different characters are significantly different (p < 0.05). Ctl, control; LSB, low level of spinach fortified-bread; HSB, high level of spinach fortified-bread.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Antiglycative evaluation of baby spinach in bread. A: Relative AGEs fluorescence in breads. B: AGEs inhibition rate in breads. C: DPPH scavenging rate in breads. N = 3. Ctl, control; LSB, low level of spinach fortified-bread; HSB, high level of spinach fortified-bread; AGEs, advanced glycation end products; DPPH, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Characterization of active components in baby spinach. A: Illustration of antiglycative activity guided-screening platform. B: AGEs inhibition rate of eluents from silica gel isolation. C: AGEs inhibition rate of eluents from Sephadex LH-20 isolation. N = 3. BSA, bovine serum albumin; AGEs, advanced glycation end products; SG-1∼SG-5, silica gel column eluted fractions; SL-1∼SL-14, Sephadex LH-20 column eluted fractions.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
MS spectra of pheophorbide a (a) and pyropheophorbide a (b) from SL-5 fraction. SL-5, the 5th eluted fraction from Sephadex LH-20 column; EIC, extracted ion chromatogram.
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