Potential Adverse Effects of Alteration of Phytochemical Accumulation in Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

Alterations in the accumulation of phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables may have adverse effects on the health benefits emanating from their consumption. Plants parts possess secondary metabolites in addition to their primary metabolites. Plants secondary metabolites possess many inherent biological activities that include antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, and enzyme inhibitory properties, which are health benefits to humans. Accumulation of phytochemicals in plants is reportedly influenced by environmental factors or growth conditions such as lack of nutrients, pathogens attack, competitive cohabitation plant species, insect predation, and herbivorous attack. Human interventions such as agricultural practices may affect biochemical processes in plants or crops in a manner that may limitations or alterations in the accumulation of phytochemicals. The limitation of phytochemicals accumulation in fruits and vegetables may have the adverse effect on their health benefits in humans that may explain the high prevalence of life style diseases such as diabetes and cancer experienced in today's world. The proper assessment of the influence on phytochemical responses in crops, fruits, and vegetables by modern agricultural practices such as weeding methods, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizer application, crop rotation, and co-habitation needs to be carried out. Such assessment is important since while crop production may be improved, caution should be exercised not to erode, or negatively alter phytochemical biosynthesis in crops.

Chromatographic Separation of Breynia retusa (Dennst.) Alston Bark, Fruit and Leaf Constituents from Bioactive Extracts

“…The ethyl acetate leaf and fruit extracts were found to be higher in flavonoid content (208.94 ± 50.03 and 259.33 ± 7.37 mg RE/g, respectively) and the methanolic leaf and fruit extracts yielded the highest phenolic content (81.05 ± 0.42 and 53.02 ± 0.95 mg GAE/g, respectively) [ 18 ]. Such difference in results can be explained by a number of parameters including growing conditions, temperature, geographical locations, seasonal variations, nutrients uptake and exposure to pollution [ 29 ]. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that plants and their respective ecosystems are connected whereby the type and amount of phytoconstituents are produced with respect to the plant’s environment and living conditions since secondary metabolites are only produced as part of the defensive mechanism of the plant [ 30 ].…”

Untargeted Metabolomic Profiling, Multivariate Analysis and Biological Evaluation of the True Mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata Lam.)

“…To further support this fact, a study conducted by Hardoko and co-authors [2] showed that the ethanolic fruit extract of R. mucronata yielded 37.35 mg GAE/g TPA [2] while herein, the methanolic fruit extract possessed 79.55 ± 0.73 mg GAE/g which represents a two-fold increase in the TPA extracted. It is important to highlight that the production of phytochemicals by plants is influenced by a number of parameters, namely geographical locations seasonal variations, environmental conditions, nutrients uptake and exposure to pollution [30]. Consequently, the type and amount of phytoconstituents are produced with respect to the plant’s environment and living conditions since secondary metabolites are only produced as part of the defensive mechanism of a plant [31].…”

Plant-Wear: A Multi-Sensor Plant Wearable Platform for Growth and Microclimate Monitoring

“…The increasing worldwide population entails more effort in guaranteeing food security. For this reason, agriculture must improve its performance and harvest capacity along with reducing the use of pesticides and agronomic procedures which negatively affect the environment and the harvest products’ quality [ 1 ].…”