This study investigated the association between flavonoid profiles of different cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata) varieties with anti-inflammatory properties as a possible benefit against inflammatory bowel disease. Cowpea, a drought tolerant annual herbaceous legume that originated in Africa, is known to possess high levels of polyphenolics, which have demonstrated anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory and antioxidant properties. Black, red, white, brown and light brown cowpeas were investigated for phenolic content and composition using UV-Visible Spectroscopy and HPLC; antioxidant activation mechanism (AOX) by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). Anti-inflammatory activity was measured via NF-κB activation in Raw 264.7 macrophages challenged with a lipo-polysaccharide.
Phenols, tannins and AOX activity were generally similar within phenotypes; however among light brown varieties, 09FCV-CC-27M, had among the highest phenols, tannins and AOX, whereas IAR-48 had among the lowest. White cowpea (EARLY ACRE) variety showed the least amount of total phenol content (78.2 mg GAE/g) and condensed tannin content (4.1 mg CE/g); whereas the red varieties (IT82D-889, IT97K-1042-3) contained the highest amounts of tannins (242 and 132 mg CE/g), and phenols (431 and 454 mg GAE/g) respectively. Antioxidant activity correlated with phenol content data. Anthocyanins were only found in the black cowpea. The red varieties had the highest levels of flavonols, which were mostly quercetin derivatives; the white and light brown (IAR-48) varieties had quercetin-3-O-diglucoside as the dominantcompound. The light brown variety (09FCV-CC-27M) had the highest amount of flavan-3-ols while in the white variety no flavan-3-ols were detected.
Unexpectedly, the cowpea extracts with lower phenolic and tannins content, the white and light brown (IAR-48) varieties, showed significant (p<0.05) anti-inflammatory properties in the LPS induced macrophages, inhibiting the activation of NF-κB at different concentrations (0.33, 1.67 and 3.33 μg extract/mL). Conversely, extracts with higher phenolic and tannin content did not induce anti-inflammatory response at similar concentrations, suggesting that tannins or other phenolics interfered with anti-inflammatory response at these concentrations. These results suggest that cowpea composition is an important determinant of anti-inflammatory response in inflammatory bowel disease.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/149934 |
| Date | 08 October 2013 |
| Creators | Siska, Karla P |
| Contributors | Awika, Joseph, Wu, Chaodong, Rooney, Lloyd W |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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