National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition, Rome, Italy.
Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2013;2013:704310. doi: 10.1155/2013/704310. Epub 2013 Aug 27.
Fruit- and vegetable-derived foods have become a very significant source of nutraceutical phytochemicals. Among vegetables, red chicory (Cichorium Intybus L. cultivar) has gained attention for its content of phenolic compounds, such as the anthocyanins. In this study, we evaluated the nutraceutical effects, in terms of antioxidant, cytoprotective, and antiproliferative activities, of extracts of the whole leaf or only the red part of the leaf of Treviso red chicory (a typical Italian red leafy plant) in various intestinal models, such as Caco-2 cells, differentiated in normal intestinal epithelia and undifferentiated Caco-2 cells. The results show that the whole leaf of red chicory can represent a good source of phytochemicals in terms of total phenolics and anthocyanins as well as the ability of these phytochemicals to exert antioxidant and cytoprotective effects in differentiated Caco-2 cells and antiproliferative effects in undifferentiated Caco-2 cells. Interestingly, compared to red chicory whole leaf extracts, the red part of leaf extracts had a significantly higher content of both total phenolics and anthocyanins. The same extracts effectively corresponded to an increase of antioxidant, cytoprotective, and antiproliferative activities. Taken together, these findings suggest that the red part of the leaf of Treviso red chicory with a high content of antioxidant anthocyanins could be interesting for development of new food supplements to improve intestinal health.
水果和蔬菜衍生食品已成为营养植物化学物质的重要来源。在蔬菜中，红菊苣（Cichorium Intybus L. 品种）因其含有酚类化合物（如花青素）而受到关注。在这项研究中，我们评估了整个叶片或仅叶片红色部分的特雷维索红菊苣（一种典型的意大利红叶植物）提取物的营养功效，包括抗氧化、细胞保护和抗增殖活性，在各种肠道模型中，如 Caco-2 细胞，分化为正常肠上皮细胞和未分化的 Caco-2 细胞。结果表明，整个红菊苣叶片在总酚类物质和花青素含量方面以及这些植物化学物质在分化的 Caco-2 细胞中发挥抗氧化和细胞保护作用以及在未分化的 Caco-2 细胞中发挥抗增殖作用的能力方面可以作为植物化学物质的良好来源。有趣的是，与红菊苣全叶提取物相比，叶片红色部分的总酚类物质和花青素含量明显更高。相同的提取物有效地对应于抗氧化、细胞保护和抗增殖活性的增加。总之，这些发现表明，含有高抗氧化花青素的特雷维索红菊苣叶片红色部分可能是开发新的食品补充剂以改善肠道健康的有趣选择。
