Antioxidant Activity, Macamide B Content and Muscle Cell Protection of Maca (Lepidium meyenii) Extracted Using Ultrasonification-Assisted Extraction

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the Ultrasonication-Assisted (UA) extraction on the functionality of the herbaceous biennial plant maca (Lepidium meyenii). The specific objectives include comparison of the antioxidant activities among various maca extracts, determination of the macamide B content of the extracts, and in vitro evaluation of maca on cell viability and creatine kinase (CK) activity. The antioxidant activities of the water, ethanol, and UA extracts were compared by determining the total phenolic and flavonoid contents, the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities, and the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of the extracts. The macamide B content of maca extracts were analyzed by HPLC. The effects of the extracts on muscle cell viability and creatine kinase activity were also determined using C2C12 myoblasts. UA extraction significantly increased the total phenolic content (2.90 GAE µg/mg, p < 0.05), without affecting the flavonoid content. DPPH radical scavenging activity did not exhibit any statistical difference among the extracts. The ethanol and UA extracts exhibited significantly higher FRAP than the water extract (p < 0.05). The macamide B content of ethanol and UA extracts were 0.087 and 0.083 µg/mg, respectively. The water and UA extracts exhibited higher C2C12 muscle cell viability than the ethanol extract, and both extracts resulted in a significantly lower CK level than the H 2 O 2 -treated control group. This research suggests that the maca extract can protect muscle cells and serve as an antifatigue agent under oxidative stress conditions.

First study of in vitro protective effect of Lepidium meyenii (Maca) on frozen–thawed bovine spermatozoa

“…The present study showed the in vitro effects of L. meyenii on the sperm parameters of capacitated frozen-thawed bull semen. Several studies have shown that Maca has an effect on seminal quality in humans [5,12,32], mice [1, 2, 8-10], and stallions [6,17] that is related to its antioxidant capacity [4,11,[33][34][35][36] because, during cryopreservation, sperm is damaged by OS [18][19][20][21]. In addition to the high concentration of antioxidants, L. meyenii contains several secondary metabolites [3,14,22,23], which help in keeping ROS levels low [14,17].…”

Using Aqueous Extract of Maca (Lepidium meyenii) to Study its Effectiveness on Short-Term Storage Ram Semen Dilution and Fertility

“…Besides that, Leiva-Revilla et al (2022) could be reported that in bovine semen the four dilutions of maca extract at 0, 1, 10, and 100 mg/mL post-thawing incubation for 24 hours indicated rectilinear motility up to 49,60,53 and 48 %,normal 88,90,87 and 87 %,intact live acrosome 21,25,40 and 30%,livability 22,25,41 and 30% and normal DNA 90.60,92.29,91.35 and 91.44%,respectively. Then, the best of aqueous extract of maca on ram semen extenders during the short-term storage at 5 °C for 5 days may be related to antioxidant activity. In this context, Buyanbadrakh et al (2020) who revealed that macaridine, macaene, macamides and alkaloids in maca has freeradical scavenging capacity and increase the levels of superoxide dismutase and glutathione. Also, amino acid in maca like arginine showed an improvement in sperm quality.…”