Abstract

The changes in anti-inflammatory properties in six edible greens (such as Cassia auriculata, Passiflora edulis, Sesbania grandiflora, Olax zeylanica, Gymnema lactiferum and Centella asiatica) during simulating gastro-intestinal conditions has been investigated. The fractions from each leaves at different digestion phases were evaluated using four in-vitro anti-inflammatory assays, namely, hemolysis inhibition, proteinase inhibition, protein denaturation inhibition and lipoxygenase inhibition. It was found that anti-inflammatory properties of gastric, intestinal and dialysable fractions are varying depending on the leafy type. In general, protein denaturation inhibitory properties of the digested leaves have reduced significantly (p<0.05) in the phase of intestinal digestion and in the dialysed content compared with the activity at the gastric digestion phase. Studied leafy vegetables have shown different hemolysis inhibitory levels at different digestion fractions depending on the nature of the leafy types. In terms of lipoxygenase inhibitory activity, the lowest inhibitory activities were found in all the digestion fractions of C. auriculata and G. lactiferum leaves and they were less than 10%. O. zeylanica and C. asiatica have shown higher lipoxygenase inhibitory activities in their intestinal and dialysed fractions compared with their gastric fractions. Leaves of O. zeylanica and G. lactiferum have shown higher proteinase inhibitory activity in the intestinal fractions (27-29%) than their gastric and dialysed fractions. Leaves of P. edulis, C. asiatica, C. auriculata and S. grandiflora have shown 23-26% proteinase inhibition activities in their different digestion fractions. Most of the evaluated anti-inflammatory properties of the studied leafy vegetables correlate with their polyphenolic and carotenoid contents indicating these properties may be due to the presence of antioxidant bioactives.

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