Abstract
Edible plants have attracted increasing attention as functional foods as they are rich in bioactive compounds with health benefits, including antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities. However, scientific evidence of these health effects is limited. This study is aimed at determining antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities of 25 select vegetables, herbs, and spices commonly consumed in Indonesia. Phytochemical profiles were determined by measuring total flavonoid content and 1H-NMR. Human blood lymphocyte cells were used to probe the immunomodulatory potency and treated with the methanol extract of these vegetables, herbs, and spices. The results showed the enhanced propensity for all tested plant extracts to stimulate lymphocyte proliferation, except Pandanus amaryllifolius. Etlingera elatior, Ocimum xcitriodorum, Kaempferia galanga, and Apium graveolens had the highest lymphocyte cell proliferation stimulation index (SI) at concentrations of 41.67, 16.67, 4.17, and 2.5 mg/mL culture, respectively (SI 2.21 ± 0.05, 2.62 ± 0.12, 3 ± 0.05, and 2.64 ± 0.07, respectively). The NMR spectra of these four most potent plants showed low peaks in the aromatic/phenolic area and several other peaks indicating the presence of terpenoid, steroid, amino acid, and sugar compounds. The results demonstrate the immunomodulatory potential of all vegetables, herbs, and spices, except P. amaryllifolius, although this potential did not necessarily correlate with flavonoid content and antioxidant activity. Nevertheless, this research showed promising health effect, particularly immunomodulation, of the various local plants. Further elaboration on the specific immunomodulatory activity will be interesting.
Highlights
Plants contain various bioactive components, including alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins, glycosides, gums, polysaccharides, phenols, tannins, terpenes, and terpenoids, which possess various biological activities that benefit health
The numerous studies of the benefit of food plants have resulted in the recommendation of WHO (2008) to consume 600 g of fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet to prevent noncommunicable diseases as well as to optimize the immune system
100 g of each plant was sonicated in 80% MeOH for 30 min, followed by filtration and subsequent placement in a rotary vacuum evaporator at 40°C to remove the solvent
Summary
Plants contain various bioactive components, including alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins, glycosides, gums, polysaccharides, phenols, tannins, terpenes, and terpenoids, which possess various biological activities that benefit health. These effects encompass antioxidant [1,2,3], antidiabetic [4, 5], antiobesity [6], diuretic [7], anticancer [8, 9], and antiinflammatory [10, 11] activities, which enhance the immune system [12, 13]. S. androgynus, A. irregularis, M. oleifera, C. papaya, S. grandiflora, E. elatior, S. torvum, S. nigrum, T. triangulare, N. scutellarium, O. xcitriodorum, C. caudatus, P. trinervia, C. asiatica, P. indica, P. fruticosum, A. occidentale, C. barbata, A. graveolens, S. polyanthum, P. amaryllifolius, A. schoenoprasum, A. fistulosum, K. galanga, and C. mangga have been reported to exhibit antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities [16, 17]
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