Healthy and tasty: these attributes define edible wild (
Diplotaxis tenuifolia) and salad rocket (
Eruca sativa), for their glucosinolate profile, that was characterised by variation in some key ...components. Ample variability was also detected in other
Diplotaxis, with extremely glucosinolate-rich species, and strongly characterised profiles, revealing likely taxonomic affinities among taxa previously examined by other criteria, and suggesting potentials of exploitation.
Leaf glucosinolates of 42
Diplotaxis and 21
Eruca accessions were studied. Total content ranged from 0.25 to more than 70
g
kg
−1
dry
wt. The 13 clusters, defined on the basis of glucosinolate composition, belonged to two glucosinolate-rich groups, characterised by the prevalence of a single component, and one low-glucosinolate group, with a profile not dominated by any individual component. A sinigrin-rich cluster (
D. ibicensis,
D. berthautii,
D. ilorcitana,
D. siettiana,
D. tenuisiliqua,
D. brevisiliqua, and
D. virgata) and a gluconapin-rich cluster (
D. catholica,
D.siifolia,
D. virgata, and
D. ollivieri) included all the species previously classified in the
nigra phylogenetic lineage.
D. virgata was confirmed to be a critical taxon, with one accession slightly diverging from the others.
D. siifolia subsp.
vicentina was separated from the others in a glucobrassicin-rich cluster.
D. harra, a rather isolated representative of sub-genus
Hesperidium, clustered together
D. assurgens in a sinalbin-rich cluster. Another well defined cluster was represented by
D. brachycarpa (gluconasturtin). The two sub-species of
D. erucoides were well differentiated by their glucosinolate profile. The low glucosinolate species:
D. tenuifolia,
D. viminea,
D. cretacea,
D. muralis (subgenus
Diplotaxis), and
E. vesicaria, all previously included in the
rapa/oleracea lineage, belonged to seven less defined clusters, mainly differing on the presence/absence or the relative abundance of some components (glucoraphanin, glucolepidin, 4-hydroxy-glucobrassicin, 4-phenylbutyl gls, glucoerucin and neoglucobrassicin). The data support previous taxonomic works. Glucosinolate-rich taxa, with well characterised profiles may be suitable for industrial uses, whereas the variability of edible
D. tenuifolia and
E. vesicaria may represent a basis for breeding horticultural types.
Notwithstanding the wide range of biological and pharmacological activities reported for sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), many discrepancies are still present in the evaluation of its ...health-promoting properties. These discordances could be at least in part due to insufficient details of qualitative and quantitative composition, connected to the ample variability of this species. Furthermore, many investigations have been carried out in vitro, with few data available on the effectiveness in biological systems. In this study, the protective effect of essential oils and water-soluble extracts derived from three different cultivars of sweet basil has been evaluated in cultured cardiomyocytes. To verify the effectiveness of supplemented oils/extracts in counteracting oxidative damage, cardiomyocytes were stressed by the addition of hydrogen peroxide. The results indicate that (a) in vitro antioxidant activity is not predictive of biological activity and (b) basil can yield extracts with substantially different protective effects, in relation to composition and extraction techniques. Variation among different cultivars has also been detected.
PDF