Effect of Growth Stages and Lactic Acid Fermentation on Anti-Nutrients and Nutritional Attributes of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a winter-season green, leafy vegetable grown all over the world, belonging to the family Amaranthus, sub-family Chenopodiaceae. Spinach is a low-caloric food and an enormous source of micronutrients, e.g., calcium, folates, zinc, retinol, iron, ascorbic acid and magnesium. Contrarily, it also contains a variety of anti-nutritional factors, e.g., alkaloids, phytates, saponins, oxalates, tannins and many other natural toxicants which may hinder nutrient-absorption. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of fermentation on improving the nutrient-delivering potential of spinach and mitigating its burden of antinutrients and toxicants at three growth stages: the 1st growth stage as baby leaves, the 2nd growth stage at the coarse stage, and the 3rd growth stage at maturation. The results revealed the significant (p < 0.05) effect of fermentation on increasing the protein and fiber content of spinach powder from 2.53 to 3.53% and 19.33 to 22.03%, respectively, and on reducing total carbohydrate content from 52.92 to 40.52%; the effect was consistent in all three growth stages. A significant decline in alkaloids (6.45 to 2.20 mg/100 g), oxalates (0.07 mg/100 g to 0.02 mg/100 g), phytates (1.97 to 0.43 mg/100 g) and glucosinolates (201 to 10.50 µmol/g) was observed as a result of fermentation using Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. Fermentation had no impact on total phenolic content and the antioxidant potential of spinach, as evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. This study proposes fermentation as a safer bioprocess for improving the nutrient-delivering potential of spinach, and suggests processed powders made from spinach as a cost-effective complement to existing plant proteins

Effect of Growth Stages and Lactic Acid Fermentation on Anti-Nutrients and Nutritional Attributes of Spinach (<i>Spinacia oleracea</i>)

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a winter-season green, leafy vegetable grown all over the world, belonging to the family Amaranthus, sub-family Chenopodiaceae. Spinach is a low-caloric food and an enormous source of micronutrients, e.g., calcium, folates, zinc, retinol, iron, ascorbic acid and magnesium. Contrarily, it also contains a variety of anti-nutritional factors, e.g., alkaloids, phytates, saponins, oxalates, tannins and many other natural toxicants which may hinder nutrient-absorption. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of fermentation on improving the nutrient-delivering potential of spinach and mitigating its burden of antinutrients and toxicants at three growth stages: the 1st growth stage as baby leaves, the 2nd growth stage at the coarse stage, and the 3rd growth stage at maturation. The results revealed the significant (p Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. Fermentation had no impact on total phenolic content and the antioxidant potential of spinach, as evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. This study proposes fermentation as a safer bioprocess for improving the nutrient-delivering potential of spinach, and suggests processed powders made from spinach as a cost-effective complement to existing plant proteins

Effect of herbal formulation intake on health indices in albino Wistar rat model

Dyslipidemia management activity of ginger-, garlic-, and lemon-based herbal mixture was tested as paste and herbal extract in hypercholesterolemic adult male albino rats. Atherogenic diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in rats was treated by supplementing the diet with 2.5% herbal paste (4.2 g/kg b.w.) or 2.5 ml oral gavage (20 ml/kg b.w.) of liquid herbal extract daily for 42 days. Hematological and serological outcomes of herbal formulation feeding were compared with the cholesterol-fed positive control and normal control. The results suggest the significant (p &lt; .05) inhibitory properties of herbal paste and liquid extracts against dyslipidemia showing 31%–37%, 62%–68%, and 40%–56% lower levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides (TGs), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), respectively. Treating cholesterol-fed animals with herbal paste and extract significantly (p &lt; .05) increased total protein (5–5.5 g/dl) and serum albumin (3.7–4.2 g/dl) concentration as compared to the normal control. Contrary to significant hypocholesterolemic activity, higher serum total bilirubin levels, that is, 0.70 mg/dl, were observed in rats subchronically exposed to herbal paste and liquid extracts. Nonsignificant (p &gt; .05) impact of herbal formula feeding was observed on hematological indices except lymphocyte counts, that is, 93% in rats fed on herbal paste. The results validate conventional hypocholesterolemic claims associated with ginger-, garlic-, and lemon-based herbal formulations; however, deeper insight into their dose-dependent response in hypercholesterolemia is necessitated to rule out the toxicological impact on the consumer