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Underutilized crop-wild variant of popular leafy vegetable Basella alba L. - a source of nutrients and novel
1Department of Botany, Taki Government College, Taki, West Bengal, India.
Abstract:
A crop-wild variant of popular leafy vegetable Basella alba L. is consumed in different regions of India especially in West Bengal by the rural people. It is yet to achieve popularity and wide acceptance as leafy vegetable. GC-MS analysis of methanolic leaf extracts of both the cultivated and crop-wild underutilised member revealed the presence of nutritive as well as novel bioactive compounds like - 14B-pregnane, hydrocortisone or cortisol, α-tocospiro A and B, triterpenoid - lupeol and simiarenol, vitamin C conjugate, phytol, etc. This is the first report of the presence of steroid hydrocortisone in any plant source and 14B-pregnane, a precursor of progesterone in the family Basellaceae, though the latter is of wide occurrence in the members of Apocynaceae and Asclepiadaceae. The crop-wild variant appeared very competitive even better than its popular cultivated relative in terms of palatability, nutritive value as well as novel bioactive compounds.
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