Browsing by Subject "Quinoa"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Bioactive potential and spectroscopical characterization of a novel family of plant pigments betalains derived from dopamine
    (Elsevier, 2022-09-22) Henarejos Escudero, Paula; Hernández García, Samanta; Martínez Rodríguez, Pedro; Gandía Herrero, Fernando; García Carmona, Francisco; Bioquímica y Biología Molecular "A"
    With two compounds first discovered in quinoa, an entire novel family of betalain pigments derived from dopamine is obtained and characterized. Betalains are nitrogenous water-soluble pigments and bioactive molecules with health-promoting effects and nutraceutical potential. It was assumed that all betalains contained betalamic acid as a structural unit derived from L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). However, hitherto ignored compounds derived from dopamine have recently been discovered in nature. Here an entire family of betalains is described as decarboxylated pigments where 6-decarboxy-betalamic acid is the chromophoric and structural unit. This paper shows for the first time the production, purification and characterization of color and fluorescent properties of this novel family of pigments. Antioxidant and anti-aging effects of the just discovered betalains were tested in vivo using the animal model Caenorhabditis elegans. Some of them presented extraordinary properties, being glutamic acid-6-decarboxy-betaxanthin the most fluorescent molecule among both families of betalains. Methionine sulfoxide-6-decarboxy-betaxanthin is described as the most potent betalain in the reduction of oxidative stress in vivo in C. elegans (99.5 % at 25 µM) and dopa-6-decarboxy-betaxanthin increased the lifespan of the animal model up to 7.0 % at 25 µM. These results open new research lines in the search for molecules from plants with health-promoting properties and bioactivities.
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    Characterization of betalains, saponins and antioxidant power in differently colored quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) varieties
    (Elsevier, 2017-05-02) Jiménez-Atiénzar, Mercedes; Ibáñez-Tremolada, Martha; Gómez-Pando, Luz Rayda; Cabanes Cos, Juana; Escribano Cebrián, Josefa; Gandía Herrero, Fernando; García Carmona, Francisco; Bioquímica y Biología Molecular "A"
    Quinoa was the traditional grain crop used by the prehispanic civilizations in America. Grains are white, black, yellow, and red-violet and plants are cultivated in vast areas of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. The recent description of the betacyanin pigment betanin in red-violet varieties is here further analyzed detecting the presence of amaranthin not previously identified in quinoa grains. Yellow-orange grains are characterized for the first time and up to four different betaxanthins are found to be responsible for this coloration. The native fluorescence of the identified betaxanthins makes the surface of the yellow quinoa grains glow with green fluorescent light. The presence of betalains is correlated with high antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities measured under the FRAP, ABTS and ORAC assays in grain extracts of 29 Peruvian varieties. TEAC equivalence is as high as 44.1 and 47.4 mmol Trolox/kg for the yellow and red-violet varieties analyzed respectively.
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    Development of betalain producing callus lines from colored quinoa varieties (Chenopodium quinoa Willd)
    (American Chemical Society, 2017-12-14) Henarejos Escudero, Paula; Guadarrama-Flores, Berenice; Guerrero Rubio, María Alejandra; Gómez-Pando, Luz Rayda; Gandía Herrero, Fernando; García Carmona, Francisco; Bioquímica y Biología Molecular "A"
    Betalains are water-soluble plant pigments of hydrophilic nature with promising bioactive potential. Among the scarce edible sources of betalains is the grain crop quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd), with violet, red, and yellow grains being colored by these pigments. In this work, call us cultures have been developed from differently colored plant varieties. Stable callus lines exhibited color and pigment production when maintained on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with the plant growth regulators 6-benzylaminopurine (8.88 μM) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (6.79 μM) with a reduction of the nitrogen source to 5.91 mM. Pigment analysis by HPLC-DAD and ESI-MS/MS fully describes the content of individual pigments in the cell lines and allows the first report on the pigments present in quinoa seedlings. Phyllocactin and vulgaxanthin Iare described as novel pigments in the species and show the potential of C. quinoa culture lines in the production of compounds of nutritional value.