Background: In the human diet, the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is important in maintaining good health and in preventing chronic diseases. It is known that plant-derived food is a powerful source of chemopreventive molecules, i.e. antioxidants, and spinach (Spinacia oleracea L., Chenopodiaceae) possesses a wide range of metabolites with such biological activity. Plant stress response could lead to the production of metabolites with high value for human health and this could be a tool to enhance the production of molecules with antioxidant activity in plants.
Results: Data reported in this paper confirm the antioxidant properties of spinach plants, and show a strong antiproliferative activity of leaf extract on HT-29 human cell line. Besides, the hypoxic stress seems to affect the pool of antioxidant molecules present in spinach leaves, as verified by means of HPLC-MS/MS analysis and the aluminium chloride and ABTS assays.
Conclusion: Our findings represent a basis for improving the biological and pharmacological properties of spinach plants, including the use of different growth conditions to modulate the phytocomplex profile of spinach.
Keywords: HT-29 cancer cell line; antioxidant; antiproliferative; human health; hypoxia; spinach.
© 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.