Recently, the consumption of healthy foods has been related to the prevention of cardiovascular, degenerative diseases and different forms of cancers, underlying the importance of the diet for the consumer’s health. Fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals that act as protective factors for the human body, through different mechanisms of action. Among vegetables, Brassica received a lot of attention in the last years for the phytochemical compounds content and antioxidant capacity that confer nutraceutical value to the product. The amount of healthy bioactive compounds present in the Brassica defines the nutritional quality. These molecules could belong to the class of antioxidant compounds (e.g., phenols, vitamin C, etc.), or to non-antioxidant compounds (e.g., minerals, glucosinolates, etc.). The amount of these compounds in Brassica vegetables could be influenced by several factors, depending on the genotypes, the environmental conditions and the cultivation techniques adopted. The aim of this study is to highlight the main phytochemical compounds present in brassicas used as a food vegetable that confer nutritional and sensorial quality to the final product, and to investigate the main factors that affect the phytochemical concentration and the overall quality of Brassica vegetables.
Brassicaceae plants are rich with antioxidant compounds that play a key role for human health. This study wants to characterize two Italian broccoli cultivars (Roya and Santee) and black cabbage, evaluating the variation of antioxidants in different portion and at different developmental stage of the plants: for broccoli, heads and stems were sampled, while for black cabbage, leaves and seeds were analyzed. Roja cultivar was also analyzed at the first and second harvest to evaluate the variation of phytochemical compounds over time. Nutritional and sensorial qualities were investigated. Black cabbage seeds showed higher value of total antioxidants, total phenols, and total anthocyanins than leaves. Similarly, phenolics and anthocyanins content in head was higher than in stem in broccoli. In Roja cultivar, the harvest date seemed to influence the antioxidant capacity and the phytochemical compounds content, with broccoli sampled in the second harvest showing better results for all the nutritional parameters. These local vegetables represent a significant source of antioxidants and may contribute to health benefits of the consumers.
This study reports a characterization of the nutritional quality of several vegetables belonging to Brassica genus and other species cultivated in the central Italy. The aim of this trial is to investigate the antioxidant capacity and phytochemical content of several vegetable products during two consecutive years. The sensorial quality is investigated with the measuring of soluble solid content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA) and pH; the nutritional quality is investigated by the measurement of the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), the total phenols content (TPH), the total anthocyanins content (ACY), and the vitamin C content. The results confirm the highest antioxidant capacity of Brassica genus, in particular, the red curly kale (13.68 and 11.97 mM Trolox/kg fw in the two locations tested); among other vegetables analyzed, the most interesting are chicory and borage (10.3 and 11.94 mM Trolox/kg fw in the first year of cultivation in Valdaso, respectively). A high intake of these vegetables may bring a lot of health benefits linked to their antioxidative capacity and the vitamin C content.
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