ABSTRACT
Traditional leafy vegetables, apart from being a staple in the diet of most of sub-Saharan Africa, are an essential part of traditional medicine and are used daily by traditional healers in the region to treat a wide variety of ailments. In this study, a batch culture technique was used to investigate whether 25 infusions from 22 traditional leafy vegetables stimulated the growth of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus reuteri and Bifidobacterium longum in pure culture. High performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the inulin content of the infusions. Sonchus oleraceus stimulated all four strains and Taraxacum officinale stimulated three strains. In total, 18 plants stimulated at least one of the four probiotic strains. The inulin content of the infusions varied between 2.5% and 3.6%, with Asparagus sprengeri containing the highest percentage. These results indicate that traditional leafy vegetables do stimulate the growth of the selected lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in pure culture and contain inulin. These infusions can now be tested for prebiotic potential using mixed culture systems or human hosts.
Subject(s)
Bifidobacterium/drug effects , Inulin/pharmacology , Lactobacillus/drug effects , Plant Extracts/pharmacology , Prebiotics , Probiotics , Vegetables/chemistry , Africa South of the Sahara , Asparagus Plant/chemistry , Bifidobacterium/growth & development , Diet , Humans , Lactobacillus/growth & development , Limosilactobacillus reuteri/drug effects , Limosilactobacillus reuteri/growth & development , Medicine, African Traditional , Sonchus/chemistry , Taraxacum/chemistryABSTRACT
Over 3,000 plant species are cyanogenic. Cyanogenesis is defined as the hydroxynitrile lyase catalysed release of a cyanide group in the form of HCN and the corresponding aldehyde or ketone. When a plant is attacked, HCN released is a self defence mechanism. A special characteristic of enzymatic reactions is that all enzymatic reactions are reversible-hydroxynitrile lyases can also be used for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure cyanohydrins which are of great importance in industry. This article presents a comprehensive review of the role of hydroxynitrile lyases, both in nature and industry, and an insightful. Areas covered include: history, discovery and natural sources of the hydroxynitrile lyase. Molecular cloning for mass production of this enzyme, including detailed information about several successful recombinant hydroxynitrile lyases is also included.
