In vitro evaluation of red and green lettuce (Lactuca sativa) for functional food properties

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an important leafy vegetable consumed fresh or in salad mixes. We have compared the functional food properties of selected commercial red and green lettuce varieties grown under field conditions. Both lettuce cultivars were extracted with water at biological (38 °C) and room temperatures (22 °C) at pH 2. The residues from each extraction were further extracted, sequentially with methanol and ethyl acetate. The extracts were evaluated for their in vitro lipid peroxidation (LPO) and cyclooxygenase enzyme (COX) inhibitory activities. Amongst the extracts tested, all three extracts of red lettuce showed higher LPO and COX-1 and -2 enzyme inhibitory activities than did the green lettuce extracts. Red lettuce contained a single anthocyanin, cyanidin-3-O-(6″-malonyl-β-glucopyranoside) (1), which immediately converted to cyanidin-3-O-(6″-malonyl-β-glucopyranoside methyl ester) (2) and cyanidin-3-O-β-glucopyranoside (3) under laboratory conditions. Anthocyanins 1 and 2 inhibited LPO by 88% and 91.5%, respectively, at 0.25 μM concentration. Also, they inhibited COX-2 enzyme by 78.9% and 84.3% and COX-1 by 64% and 65.8%, respectively, at 5 μM. The chicoric acid (4), amongst other phenolics, such as quercetin glucoside, ferulic and caffeic acids, isolated from both green and red lettuce, showed 85.6%, 45.6% and 94% of LPO, COX-1 and -2 enzyme inhibitions at 50 μM, respectively. This is the first report of the LPO, COX-1 and -2 enzyme inhibitory activities of compounds 1, 2 and 4. The variation of phenolics in the red and green lettuces, and specifically the lack of anthocyanins in green lettuce, might account for the higher biological activity obtained with the red variety in our study.     

Characterization and selection of Lactobacillus sakei strains isolated from traditional dry sausage for their potential use as starter cultures

A total of 36 Lactobacillus sakei strains isolated from traditional dry sausage, produced without the use of starter cultures, were characterized in respect to their technological properties, i.e. growth and acidification kinetics, ability to grow at different temperatures, pH values or salt concentrations, gas production from glucose, heme-dependent catalase activity, inhibitory activity against pathogens and proteolytic and lipolytic activities.Growth rates were comprised between 0.12 and 0.55 gen/h; while acidification rates varied from 0.01 and 0.07 pH unit/h. All isolates were able to grow at pH 4.2–9.6 and at 15 °C on acetate agar supplemented with 4% NaCl, but were not able to grow at 0 and 45 °C and with 10% NaCl in the same pH conditions. However, 97% of the isolates were able to grow at 4 °C, but only 11%, and 55% were able to grow at pH 3.9 and with 6.5% NaCl, respectively. All isolates were homofermentative from glucose. Heme-dependant catalase activity was found for 97% of the isolates and 3% displayed antibacterial activity against Listeria innocua. Most isolates showed leucine and valine arylamidase and only one exhibited a lipase (C14) activity.Two strains were selected using a multi-variate analysis. Both of them showed a panel of properties highly desirable in sausage fermentation. We propose the use of these strains, in combination with coagulase-negative staphylococci as starter cultures in the studied small-scale facility in order to improve and standardize sausage safety and quality while preserving their typicality.