Abstract
The anti-proliferative/pro-oxidant efficacy of green pea, soybean, radish, Red Rambo radish, and rocket microgreens, cultivated under either fluorescent lighting (predominant spectral peaks in green and orange) or combination light-emitting diode (LED, predominant spectral peak in blue) was investigated using Ewing sarcoma lines, RD-ES and A673, respectively. All aqueous microgreen extracts significantly reduced cell proliferation (cancer prevention effect) to varying extents in two-dimensional sarcoma cell cultures. The effect of the polyphenol fraction in the aqueous food matrix was unrelated to total polyphenol content, which differed between species and light treatment. Only Pisum sativum (LED-grown) extracts exercised anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in both three-dimensional RD-ES and A673 spheroids (early tumor progression prevention), without cytotoxic effects on healthy L929 fibroblasts. A similar anti-tumor effect of Red Rambo radish (LED and fluorescent-grown) was evident only in the RD-ES spheroids. Aside from the promising anti-tumor potential of the polyphenol fraction of green pea microgreens, the latter also displayed favorable growth quality parameters, along with radish, under both light treatments over the 10 day cultivation period.
Highlights
Microgreens, an emerging specialty crop for the 21st Century, are tender, immature vegetable greens produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs, and grains, including wild species with delicate textures and distinctive flavors [1,2]
Whereas for green pea, ground cover was significantly higher under fluorescent lighting, for radish, significantly higher ground cover was evident under light-emitting diode (LED) lighting (Figure 1B)
Whereas all the microgreen extracts reduced cell proliferation of Ewing sarcoma RD-ES and A673 cell lines in 2D, only green pea and, to a lesser extent, Red Rambo radish were effective on 3D tumor spheroids
Summary
Microgreens, an emerging specialty crop for the 21st Century, are tender, immature vegetable greens produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs, and grains, including wild species with delicate textures and distinctive flavors [1,2]. Microgreens are shown to contain significantly higher contents of mineral elements and phytochemical constituents (alkaloids, various terpenoids, and polyphenols) than their mature leaf counterparts [1,2,3]. Based on studies conducted on both the sprouts and mature leaf counterparts of various microgreens such as the Brassicaceae, these bioactive phytochemicals are reported to be of pharmaceutical importance, attributable to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties [4,5,6]. From experiments investigating the effect of conventional white (W), monochromic blue (B), or red (R) LED light, as well as various percentage combinations of B, R, green (G), amber (A), and far-R LED, the results show both species- and light-dependent responses in the expression of antioxidant activity and polyphenol, carotenoid, and chlorophyll contents, respectively. Given that the use of LEDs for microgreen production to enhance phytochemical content is a relatively new area of research, further studies are needed to ascertain suitable lighting on a species-by-species basis [11]
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