Journal Article

Drought stress enhances nutritional and bioactive compounds, phenolic acids and antioxidant capacity of Amaranthus leafy vegetable

Oba, Shinya, Sarker, Umakanta

2018

Overview

Background Bioactive compounds, vitamins, phenolic acids, flavonoids of A. tricolor are the sources of natural antioxidant that had a great importance for the food industry as these detoxify ROS in the human body. These natural antioxidants protect human from many diseases such as cancer, arthritis, emphysema, retinopathy, neuro-degenerative cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis and cataracts. Moreover, previous literature has shown that drought stress elevated bioactive compounds, vitamins, phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity in many leafy vegetables. Hence, we study the nutritional and bioactive compounds, phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity of amaranth under drought stress for evaluation of the significant contribution of these compounds in the human diet. Results The genotype VA3 was assessed at four drought stress levels that significantly affected nutritional and bioactive compounds, phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity. Protein, ash, energy, dietary fiber, Ca, K, Cu, S, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, B content, total carotenoids, TFC, vitamin C, TPC, TAC (DPPH), betacarotene, TAC (ABTS + ), sixteen phenolic acids and flavonoids were remarkably increased with the severity of drought stress. At moderate and severe drought stress conditions, the increments of all these components were more preponderant. Trans -cinnamic acid was newly identified phenolic acid in A. tricolor . Salicylic acid, vanilic acid, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, Trans -cinnamic acid, rutin, isoquercetin, m -coumaric acid and p -hydroxybenzoic acid were the most abundant phenolic compounds in this genotype. Conclusions In A. tricolor, drought stress enhanced the quantitative and qualitative improvement of nutritional and bioactive compounds, phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidants. Hence, farmers of semi-arid and dry areas of the world could be able to grow amaranth as a substitute crop.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl / 4-hydroxybenzoic acid / Acids / Agriculture / Amaranth / Amaranthus tricolor / Antioxidant activity / Antioxidants / Arid regions / Arteriosclerosis / Arthritis / Ascorbic acid / Atherosclerosis / beta-carotene / Bioactive compounds / Biological activity / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Calcium / Cancer / Cardiovascular diseases / Carotenoids / cataract / Cataracts / Chemical properties / Chlorogenic acid / Cinnamic acid / Copper / Coumaric acid / Dietary fiber / Dietary minerals / Drought / Droughts / Ecological stress / Emphysema / energy / Environmental aspects / farmers / Flavonoids / Food / Food industry / Food processing industry / Functional foods & nutraceuticals / Gallic acid / genotype / Genotype & phenotype / Genotypes / green leafy vegetables / Heart diseases / HPLC-UV / human nutrition / humans / Japan / Leaves / Life Sciences / Magnesium / Manganese / Metabolites / neoplasms / Nutrient deficiency / Nutritional and bioactive compounds / p-Hydroxybenzoic acid / Phenolic acids / Phenolics / Phenols / Plant Sciences / Plant-abiotic interactions / potassium / Proteins / pulmonary emphysema / Research Article / retinal diseases / rutin / salicylic acid / Seeds / sodium / Stresses / Tree Biology / Vegetables / Vitamin C / Vitamins / water stress