Fascinating Scientific Study on Wheatgrass

basically it says that soil grown wheatgrass at day 15 had the highest nutrient value than all other forms of wheatgrass studied.


http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112474006/ABSTRACT?CRETRY...


Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum L.) as a function of growth under different conditions
Sunil D. Kulkarni 1, Jai. C. Tilak 2, R. Acharya 3, Nilima S. Rajurkar 1, T. P. A. Devasagayam 2, A. V. R. Reddy 3 *
1Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune 411 007, India

Funded by:
Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India under Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-University of Pune.

Abstract
The antioxidant activity of wheatgrass, which is consumed as a dietary supplement, was estimated at different levels. The methods employed include FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power), ABTS (2,2-azobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) assays. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of wheatgrass grown under different conditions over a period of 6, 7, 8, 10 and 15 days were used. Lipid peroxidation and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) were determined and utilized to check the potency of a few selected extracts. Different conditions used for growth were (1) tap water, (2) tap water with nutrients, (3) soil and tap water, and (4) soil with nutrients. For comparison, a commercially available wheatgrass tablet was analysed. To explain the reasons behind the observed differences, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the extracts were measured. These contents increased with growth under all the conditions. The ethanol extracts were found to have a higher phenolic and flavonoid content than the aqueous extracts. The highest FRAP values occurred on day 15 of growth under condition 4, the values being 0.463 and 0.573 mmol of ascorbic acid and Trolox equivalents/100 g fresh wheatgrass for aqueous and ethanol extracts, respectively.

In the aqueous extracts no specific trend was observed with the DPPH assay for the different conditions nor for the growth period. In the case of ethanol extracts, however, it increased with the growth period and the wheatgrass grown in condition 4 was found to be the most effective. These extracts were also found to inhibit significantly ascorbate-Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver mitochondria. The ORAC values of aqueous and ethanol extracts of day 10 with condition 4 were found to be 39.9 and 48.2, respectively, being higher than those reported for many natural extracts or vegetables. opyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Received: 26 May 2005; Accepted: 21 November 2005 Tweet