Content and Yield of L-DOPA and Bioactive Compounds of Broad Bean Plants: Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity In Vitro

Paula Beatriz Fuentes-Herrera; Braulio Edgar Herrera-Cabrera; Alma Leticia Martínez-Ayala; Alejandro Zamilpa; Adriana Delgado-Alvarado

doi:10.3390/plants12233918

Content and Yield of L-DOPA and Bioactive Compounds of Broad Bean Plants: Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity In Vitro

Plants (Basel). 2023 Nov 21;12(23):3918. doi: 10.3390/plants12233918.

Authors

Paula Beatriz Fuentes-Herrera¹, Braulio Edgar Herrera-Cabrera¹, Alma Leticia Martínez-Ayala², Alejandro Zamilpa³, Adriana Delgado-Alvarado¹

Affiliations

¹ Campus Puebla, Colegio de Posgraduados, 72760 Puebla, Mexico.
² Centro de Desarrollo de Productos Bióticos, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, 62730 Morelos, Mexico.
³ Centro de Investigación Biomédica del Sur (CIBIS), Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), 62790 Morelos, Mexico.

Abstract

The broad bean plant contains L-DOPA, a compound that is essential for patients with Parkinson's disease. However, little has been reported on other broad bean compounds that have beneficial effects on health. The objective was to evaluate plants of four Mexican broad bean varieties to determine the content and yield of total phenolic compounds (TPC), total flavonoids (TF), and L-DOPA, as well as to analyze the flavonoid profile and antioxidant (AA) and anti-inflammatory (AANTI) activity in vitro. Broad bean seeds were sown in the field and plants were harvested 20 days after emergence. The analyses were performed with visible UV spectrophotometry and HPLC. The variety José María produced the highest yield of TPC (9.30 g m^-2), TF (8.08 g m^-2), and L-DOPA (5.64 g m^-2) per unit of area. The highest yields per plant were obtained with the Rojita variety: TPC (0.25 g plant^-1), TF (0.21 g plant^-1), and L-DOPA (0.17 g plant^-1). This variety also had the highest antioxidant (IC₅₀ = 87.68 µg mL^-1) and anti-inflammatory (IC₅₀ = 74.40 mg mL^-1) activity, which was attributed to the L-DOPA compounds and to rutin and isoorientins, respectively. The flavonoid profile revealed the presence of rutin and isoorientins, which had not been previously detected in the broad bean plant.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; Vicia faba L.; field; flavonoids; isoorientins; rutin; yield.

Grants and funding

This study is a product of the doctoral dissertation of the first author, who is grateful to the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCYT) for grant number 594733 in support of her doctoral studies.