Dietary Phytochemical Screening of Spider Plant (Gynandropsis gynandra (L.) Briq.) Accessions From Africa and Asia to Identify Genotypes for Use in Nutraceutical Breeding

Abstract

Increased public awareness of healthy foods and healthy living, coupled with escalating medicinal costs and recent advances in research and technology, has sparked a paradigm shift to nutraceuticals, which guarantee human health and disease prevention. Spider plant (Gynandropsis gynandra) contains dietary phytochemicals with high nutritional and medicinal properties that can contribute to healthy living. A study was conducted to identify spider plant (Gynandropsis gynandra (L.) Briq.) accessions with superior levels of dietary phytochemicals and anti-oxidative activity for use in nutraceutical breeding. Thirty-three accessions of spider plant, representing a wide genetic diversity based on geographic areas of origin (Asia, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), were used. Total phenolic acids, tannins, and anthocyanins were extracted and quantified using the Folin-Ciocalteau colorimetric, spectrophotometric, and pH differential methods, respectively. Antioxidant activity was determined using phosphomolybdenum method. Results showed significant variation in levels of total phenolic compounds, tannins, anthocyanins, and antioxidant activity (P < 0.05) amongst the spider plant accessions and regions of origin; ODS-15-037 (464 mg TAE/g DW), ODS-15-053 (270 mg GAE/g DW), and BC-02A (127 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/g DW) had the highest levels of total tannins, phenolic compounds, and anthocyanins, respectively. Antioxidant activity was high in ODS-15-053 (492.2 mg AAE/100 g DW), NAM 2232 (445.3 mg AAE/100 g DW), and NAM-6 (432.5 mg AAE/100 g DW). On average, West African accessions had significantly high tannin concentrations (239 mg TAE/g DW), while Southern Africa accessions contained significantly high anthocyanin content (58.9 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/g DW). The superior accessions are potential candidates for use in nutraceutical breeding, while the regions of origin could be used as gene pools for specific phytochemicals for improving dietary supplements of nutraceuticals. The strong antioxidant activity exhibited by spider plant accessions suggests the presence of compounds responsible for scavenging free oxygen or nitrogen radicals. Further studies are recommended to identify the chromosomal regions that contain genes controlling the dietary nutraceuticals in the genetic materials and to determine their association with foliage yield and other phenotypes, which can be utilized in spider plant improvement.

Leaf elemental composition analysis in spider plant [Gynandropsis gynandra L. (Briq.)] differentiates three nutritional groups

“…Genotypes from this African region were found in the present study to cluster together and share the same genotypic background, as evidenced by Sogbohossou (2019). The observed variability was driven by the diverse provenance of the genotypes used as reported origin dependence in morphology (Wu et al, 2018;Sogbohossou et al, 2019), vitamin contents (Sogbohossou et al, 2019), secondary metabolite concentrations (Sogbohossou et al, 2020), seed mineral composition, seed morphology and germination (Blalogoe et al, 2020), antioxidant activity (Chataika et al, 2021), and photosynthesis traits (Reeves et al, 2018) in the species. The local adaptation in the species might further explain this.…”

“…Therefore, introducing the spider plant into the human diet will provide key essential minerals to overcome hidden hunger, as the species is also a rich source of vitamins and important phytochemicals (Sogbohossou et al, 2019(Sogbohossou et al, , 2020Chataika et al, 2021;Moyo and Aremu, 2022). Based on the elemental status of G. gynandra leaves, the species can be used in biofortification programs, including medical supplementation and product fortification.…”

“…Spider plant (G. gynandra syn. Cleome gynandra L.), belonging to the Cleomaceae family, is an annual herb with increasing interest because of its high vitamin, mineral and secondary metabolite contents, representing an important resource for combatting malnutrition (Schӧnfeldt and Pretorius, 2011;Neugart et al, 2017;Omondi et al, 2017;Moyo et al, 2018;Gowele et al, 2019;Sogbohossou et al, 2019Sogbohossou et al, , 2020Chataika et al, 2021;Thovhogi et al, 2021). The reported minerals in leaves, which are the most consumed parts of spider plant, include iron, zinc, calcium, copper, potassium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and sodium (Jiménez-Aguilar and Grusak, 2015;Omondi et al, 2017;Gowele et al, 2019;Thovhogi et al, 2021).…”

Phenotypic variation in biomass and related traits among four generations advanced lines of Cleome (Gynandropsis gynandra L. (Briq.))

“…Genetic variation is the foundation of any plant breeding program. Significant and origin-driven variation has been reported in Gynandropsis gynandra for plant morphology [ 3 , 55 ], secondary metabolite concentrations [ 9 ], seed germination, mineral composition and morphology [ 39 ], leaf vitamin contents [ 3 ], antioxidant activity [ 12 ], and photosynthesis traits [ 56 ]. Morphological traits with significant variation were related to plant architecture (plant height, number of primary branches, plant habit, stem hairiness and colour), leaf size (leaf area, leaflet length and width, petiole length, leaflet shape), leaf colour, days to 50% flowering, germination (percentage and mean time), pod characteristics (pod length and width, number of seeds per pod), seed size (length, width, perimeter, area), 1000-seed weight, flower traits (androphore length, filament length, pedicel length, gynophore length), and biomass (total shoot fresh and dry weight, leaf fresh and dry weight) [ 3 , 4 , 39 , 55 ].…”

“…Gynandropsis gynandra leaves are also an important source of proteins and fatty acids [ 7 , 8 ], including essential amino acids (histidine, isoleusine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine) [ 7 ]. In addition, spider plant has several health-promoting properties, as it contains numerous secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, glucosinolates, aldehydes, ketones, sesquiterpenes and many other phenolic compounds [ 1 , 4 , 9 – 12 ] with diverse pharmaceutical applications (plant extracts, drugs, etc.) [ 13 ].…”