The Green Leafy Vegetable Psophocarpus Scandens as Putative Source of Nutraceuticals in Sickle Cell Disease: The Scientific-Based Evidences

Abstract

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), medicinal plants represent the main product for both urban and rural populations for their health care needs due to the high costs of conventional medicine. These plant species contain bioactive compounds also called phytochemicals that are capable of modulating metabolic processes and resulting in the promotion of better health. Some of these plants act therefore as functional foods and could serve as sources of nutraceuticals. Psophocarpus scandens , an unconventional green leafy vegetable, is well known to have antioxidant activity which is one of the modes of action of Sickle cell disease (SCD) drugs. To justify this study, it was hypothesized that P. scandens possess antisickling properties. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antisickling activity of organic acids rich extract from P. scandens using in vitro biological experiments (Emmel, Itano and hemolysis tests). The results revealed that P. scadens have antisickling properties in vitro (normalization rate: 80%). This bioactivity is expressed as the re-appearance of the normal and classical biconcave form of red blood cells (RBCs: from 0.00±0.00 to 3.55±0.28 µm) in hypoxic conditions by reducing the perimeter of sickle RBCs (from 35.26±1.21 to 19.80±1.15 µm) and increasing their surface (from 21.41±1.84 to 34.10±1.76 µm 2 ) (p P. scandens fortified with the leaves powder of Moringa oleirera could considerably reduce in vivo oxidative stress and hemolysis associated with clinical manifestation of SCD. Based on current knowledge this is a first report on the antisickling activity of P. scandens. It is desirable that the bio-guided fractionation of organic acids extract could be carried out in order to isolate and elucidate the structure of bioactive pure compound(s).