Glucosinolates in Brassica foods: bioavailability in food and significance for human health

Abstract

Glucosinolates are sulphur compounds that are prevalent in Brassica genus. This includes crops cultivated as vegetables, spices and sources of oil. Since 1970s glucosinolates and their breakdown products, have been widely studied by their beneficial and prejudicial biological effects on human and animal nutrition. They have also been found to be partly responsible for the characteristic flavor of Brassica vegetables. In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to cancer prevention by means of natural products. The cancer-protective properties of Brassica intake are mediated through glucosinolates. Isothyocianate and indole products formed from glucosinolates may regulate cancer cell development by regulating target enzymes, controlling apoptosis and blocking the cell cycle. Nevertheless, variation in content of both glucosinolates and their bioactive hydrolysis products depends on both genetics and the environment, including crop management practices, harvest and storage, processing and meal preparation. Here, we review the significance of glucosinolates as source of bioactive isothiocyanates for human nutrition and health and the influence of environmental conditions and processing mechanisms on the content of glucosinolate concentration in Brassica vegetables. Currently, this area is only partially understood. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which the environment and processing affect glucosinolates content of Brassica vegetables. This will allow us to know the genetic control of these variables, what will result in the development of high quality Brassica products with a healthpromoting activity.

Variation of glucoraphanin and glucobrassicin: anticancer components in Brassica during processing

“…Seven aliphatic GSLs (progoitrin, glucoraphanin, sinigrin, glucoalyssin, gluconapin, glucobrassicanapin, and glucoerucin), three indolyl GSLs (glucobrassicin, 4-methoxyglucobrassicin, and neoglucobrassicin), and one aromatic GSL (gluconasturtiin) were identified based on the fragmentation patterns of MS spectrum and quantified based on the retention times of HPLC chromatograms (Table 1, Figure 2). These findings were in agreement with those of other research groups claiming that glucoraphanin, sinigrin, glucobrassicin, and neoglucobrassicin were commonly found in cabbage varieties (CARTEA et al, 2008).…”

Effects of glucose and gibberellic acid on glucosinolate content and antioxidant properties of Chinese kale sprouts

“…People usually harvest stems for food when they are bolting. Nowadays, the sprouts are also consumed because of their high nutritional values and rich content of bioactive compounds, such as the anticarcinogenic glucosinolates (Cartea and Velasco, 2008;Dinkova-Kostova and Kostov, 2012;Kumar et al, 2015;Mazumder et al, 2016). The sprouts of Chinese kale and other crucifers contain at least 10 times more glucosinolates than the mature stages of the corresponding plants (Fahey et al, 1997;Sun et al, 2011;Yuan et al, 2010b).…”

Optimisation of enzymatic production of sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts and their total antioxidant activity at different growth and storage days

“…Sulforaphane (4-methylsulfinylbutyl isothiocyanate) is a naturally occurring, sulfur-containing, ITCs with excellent capacity to induce phase 2 enzymes, which are formed from glucosinolate (Nakagawa et al 2006;Yeh and Yen 2009). Epidemiological studies show that increased consumption of sulforaphane can reduce the risk of different cancers, particularly those of the bladder, colon and lung (Cartea and Velasco 2008). Broccoli sprouts have been reported to have 20-509 the sulforaphane content of mature broccoli heads (Fahey et al 1997).…”