Biochemical components and physiological activities of ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum)

Abstract

The general components and cyclitol compounds of ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) were analyzed to examine the possibility of using extracts as functional food materials, the antioxidant effects and antidiabetic activities of the extracts by solvent fraction were tested. Among the mineral contents, contents of K and Na were the largest (1,213.33±2.52 and 545.53±12.01 mg/100 g, respectively), followed by S, Ca, P, and Mg in order of precedence. Among cyclitol compounds, content of D-pinitol was the largest (4.04±0.08 mg/g) while contents of chiro- inositol and myo-inositol were relatively small (2.82±0.01 and 0.25±0.01 mg/g, respectively). Among total phenol contents by solvent fraction, contents of chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions were large (35.80±1.33 and 23.70±0.62 mg GAE/g, respectively). Among antioxidant activity levels examined by DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and lipid/MA assays, the chloroform fraction commonly showed the highest level of activity while the ethyl acetate fraction showed relatively high levels of activity. The antioxidant activity levels were proportional to total phenol contents by solvent fraction. As for antidiabetic effects, all solvent fractions showed at least 50% α-glucosidase inhibitory activity levels while the ethyl acetate, butanol, and chloroform fractions showed high levels activity of 90.33±0.40, 87.98±0.16, and 86.38±0.51%, respectively. The α-amylase inhibitory actively levels were in the range of 25.63±1.45∼60.34±2.67%, which was lower than the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity levels, but the inhibitory activity levels by solvent fraction were similar. Given the above study results, ice plant can be utilized as a natural material with antioxidative and antidiabetic functionality. ? 2016, Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition. All rights reserved.