Nanovesicles from Organic Agriculture-Derived Fruits and Vegetables: Characterization and Functional Antioxidant Content.

Mariantonia Logozzi,Davide Mizzoni,Rossella Di Raimo,Stefano Fais

doi:10.3390/ijms22158170

Mariantonia Logozzi, Davide Mizzoni + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22158170

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Abstract

Dietary consumption of fruits and vegetables is related to a risk reduction in a series of leading human diseases, probably due to the plants’ antioxidant content. Plant-derived nanovesicles (PDNVs) have been recently receiving great attention regarding their natural ability to deliver several active biomolecules and antioxidants. To investigate the presence of active antioxidants in fruits, we preliminarily analyzed the differences between nanovesicles from either organic or conventional agriculture-derived fruits, at equal volumes, showing a higher yield of nanovesicles with a smaller size from organic agriculture-derived fruits as compared to conventional ones. PDNVs from organic agriculture also showed a higher antioxidant level compared to nanovesicles from conventional agriculture. Using the PDNVs from fruit mixes, we found comparable levels of Total Antioxidant Capacity, Ascorbic Acid, Catalase, Glutathione and Superoxide Dismutase 1. Finally, we exposed the nanovesicle mixes to either chemical or physical lytic treatments, with no evidence of effects on the number, size and antioxidant capacity of the treated nanovesicles, thus showing a marked resistance of PDNVs to external stimuli and a high capability to preserve their content. Our study provides for the first time a series of data supporting the use of plant-derived nanovesicles in human beings’ daily supplementation, for both prevention and treatment of human diseases.

Highlights

The beneficial effects of food and its bioactive components on human health and disease are widely recognized [1,2,3,4,5]; this knowledge covers a huge part of the pharmaceutical market [6,7]
Organic production is not the avoidance of conventional chemical inputs but relies on ecological processes and cycles adapted to local conditions, aiming to maintain biological diversity and produce food in an eco-sustainable way
To investigate the differences between the isolated nanovesicles, we analyzed them through Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA)

Summary

Introduction

The beneficial effects of food and its bioactive components on human health and disease are widely recognized [1,2,3,4,5]; this knowledge covers a huge part of the pharmaceutical market [6,7]. Plant-derived nanovesicles (PDNVs) are small vesicles surrounded by a lipid-enriched membrane and containing different natural compounds, including vitamins, antioxidants, proteins, nucleic acids and other metabolites. All these bio-compounds have shown to maintain their biological activities when uploaded to target cells. The mean size of the nanovesicles ranges between 250 nm (grapefruit and ginger EVs) [8,9,10] and 400 nm (grape) [9,11] This may depend on the fruit or vegetables under observation; for instance, nanovesicles isolated from carrots are more heterogeneous, with sizes ranging from 100 nm to 1000 nm [9,12]

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Results

Conclusion