| Semen Cassia also known as Caojueming or False Mung Beans are the mature dried seeds from Cassia obtusifolia L,Cassia tora L and Cassia occidentalis L of the leguminous family.The whole plants but generally the seeds can be used as medicinal components.It is an annual plant and a small scale variety of Chinese traditional herbal medicine.It is one of the many varieties that can be used both as food and as medicine, according to the Ministry of Health of People's Republic of China.The seed taste bitter with slight sweet and is cool in nature.It has the functions of irascibility calming, wind-dampness dispelling,kidney benefiting,eye-refreshing and hypertension relieving etc.Clinically it has been widely used in effectively treating hyperlipemia,hypertension, constipation,mycotic vaginitis,gastrointestinal heat type acne and for eye-refreshing.In addition it is also a very good healthy food material.It can be made of various forms of healthy food product.And many healthy foods and drinks,such as Bitter Gourd-Semen Cassiae Healthy Drink,Semen Cassiae-Hawthorn Leaf Healthy Soft Candy,Nutritional and Healthy Ice Cream with Semen Cassiae,Healthy Fruit-Jelly with Semen Cassia, Sour Soya-Milk with Semen Cassiae,Semen Cassiae Beer,Fruit Wine with Semen Cassiae,Semen Cassiae Drinks,Tai Chi Healthy Pillows etc.In this paper,further work has been done to analyze and ascertain the karyotype of Cassia obtusifolia L in dealing with the inconsistency of its karyotype reports so far. For the first time,the antioxidant enzyme(SOD,POD and CAT) zymogram difference in different parts of the plant cultivated in both open field and greenhouse conditions, and the major nutritional components(protein and amino acids,oil and fatty acids, carbohydrates and some important minerals) were analyzed and compared,in hope to lay the basis for its edibility and health protection product development.For in the past most work has been focused on the medicinal components and pharmacological function of Cassia obtusifolia L,no systematic work has been done on its antioxidant enzyme system and its nutritional analyses.1.The karyotype analysis of Cassia obtusifolia LBy conventional squashing technique combined with micrographics and karyotyping techniques,the number of chromosomes,karyotype and volume of chromosomes of Cassia obtusifolia L were investigated.It was found that the chromosomes of Cassia obtusifolia L were morphologically well-defined 2n=24 filamentous chromosomes;karyotype formula was K(2n)=24=24m based on Levin's publication in 1964.According to the method of Kou SR,the species chromosomes based on the relative length was 2n=24=4L+8M2+6M1+6S,which belongs to"1B" type according to the classification method of Stebbins.The total length of the chromosome groups was 54.17μm;the total length of long arms of the chromosome group was 31.49μm;the AS.K%was 58.13%by the method of Arano;the total volume of chromosomes was 53.17μm3 by the method of De-vescovi et al.This result is different from 2n=22 small dot chromosomes and 2n=26 reported by others,of the karyotype of Cassia obtusifolia L.2.The comparison and analyses of the antioxidant enzyme zymograms in different plant parts of Cassia obtusifolia L cultivated in open field and greenhouseThe superoxide dismutase(SOD),peroxidase(POD) and catalase(CAT) isozymes in root,stem and leaf of Cassia obtusifolia L cultivated in open field and greenhouse were electrophoresed by polyacrylamide gel and specifically stained.2.1 There were 7 bands(A2～A8) of SOD in the stem and root cultivated in open field and greenhouse;while there were 8 bands in leaf cultivated in both conditions.And the 7 bands(A2～A8) were shared among the three parts.Band A1 was leaf specific SOD band.The activity of SOD in leaf of Cassia obtusifolia L cultivated in both open field and greenhouse was higher than the root/stem under the same cultivation conditions;and the activities of SOD in the three plant parts were found to be a slight higher in open field than those in the greenhouse. 2.2 There were 12 bands of POD in root and stem cultivated in greenhouse,and there were 3 clear bands(A7,A9 and A10) in leaf,which was shared among the three plant parts.The intensity(activity) of the each band in root,stem and leaf from the open field was generally weaker than the corresponding band from the greenhouse.The number of bands of POD was the same in roots from open field and from greenhouse.The number of bands in stem from open field was less than that in stem from the greenhouse,lacking two bands(A1 and A2),while the number of bands in leaf from both conditions was the same.The number of bands of POD in roots from both open field and greenhouse was relatively higher than in stem and leaf;and the activity of each band was generally higher too.It can be seen that the activity of POD in root was relatively high among the three plant parts from the same condition;the intensity of each band in the stem from greenhouse was stronger than from the open field.In addition there were two bands(A1 and A2) induced in stem from the greenhouse.The bands of POD in leaf from both the greenhouse and the open field was somewhat less in both the number and the activity,indicating that the activity of POD in leaf was rather low,far less than that in the root or stem.2.3 There were two shared CAT bands(A5 and A6) among the three plant parts from both the open field and the greenhouse.There were three specific bands(A1,A2 and A4) in root,which lacks in stem and leaf;band A3 in stem and root was lacking in leaf. Generally speaking,the number of bands of CAT in root,stem and leaf from the open field was the same as in the corresponding plant parts from the greenhouse;the only difference is that the activity of each band in stem and leaf from open field was somewhat higher than those from the greenhouse,while those in root from greenhouse was higher than those from open field.From the above results of the antioxidant zymogram analyses,it can be seen that Cassia obtusifolia L is rich in antioxidant enzymes,both in the number of isozymes and in activity;it can also be seen that there exist evident spatial and temporal expression differences among the different plant parts.And some of the isoforms were inducible by environmental factors.This result laid a basis for further detailed expressional studies of these enzymes and for comprehensive utilization of the whole plants of Cassia obtusifolia L for the research & development of medicines,foods and drinks. 3 The nutritional analysis of Cassia semen3.1 Protein and amino acids of Cassia semenThe crude protein content of Cassia semen was 19.09%by the Kjeldahl Nitrogen Determination method.By HPLC analyses,the total amino acid content of the hydrolysate of Cassia Semen powder was 14.969%,among which,the content of essential amino acids was 5.331%(tryptophan not included),the content of semi-essential amino acids(arginine and histidine) was 2.014%,together they account for 49.068%of the total amino acids in the hydrolysate;the contents of Glu,Asp,Arg, Lys and Ser are relatively high,in the foregoing decreasing order.They all together account for 6.94%of the dry weight of Cassia semen,and accounts for 46%of the total amino acids.The total free amino acid content of Cassia semen was 0.266%,among which the content of essential amino acids was 0.103%(tryptophan not included),and the content of semi-amino acids was 0.032%,together they account for 50.75%of the free total;the contents of Thr,Glu,Asp,Ala and Arg are relatively high,in the foregoing decreasing order.Together they account for 0.202%of the seed dry weight,and 76%of the total free.Through the comparison with those of the commonly used agricultural produce,it was found that its protein content was rich.Almost all the standard amino acids were detected in Cassia semen and its content of essential amino acids was relatively high, close to the content of egg white.This indicates that the nutritional value of protein in Cassia semen is superior to that of the commonly used agricultural produce.3.2 Oil and fatty acids of Cassia semenThe oil content of Cassia semen was determined to be 4.97%(dry weight) by Soxhlet extraction.The oil content of Cassia semen was relatively higher than that of the commonly used vegetables.The content of saturated(palmitate and stearate) and unsaturated fatty acids(oleate,linoleate andα-linolenate) was 20.145%and 74.069% respectively of the total fatty acids by gas chromatography.The content of unsaturated fatty acids,oleate,linoleate andα-linolenate was 33.295%,40.033%and 0.941% respectively of the total fatty acids.The content of unsaturated fatty acids was relatively high.3.3 The carbohydrate and crude fiber content of Cassia semen The content of starch,reducing sugar and total sugar of Cassia semen was spectrophotometrically determined to be 27.03%,3.57%and 30.6%respectively of the dry weight,determined by 3,5-dinitrosalicylate.And crude fiber content was 6.72%of its dry weight.The content of total sugar was lower than that of wheat,maize and soya bean,but higher than potato,broad bean and sweet potato,indicating that Cassia semen is relatively rich in carbohydrates.3.4 The content of minerals in Cassia semenThe content of calcium,phosphate,iron,zinc and selenium in seed powder was measured to be 99.93 mg/kg,890.5 mg/kg,14.70mg/kg,11.51 mg/kg and 0.113mg/kg respectively.The content of calcium in Cassia semen was higher than that in rapeseed,Chinese cabbage,white gourd,green pepper,eggplant,bitter gourd,mushroom,comparable to that of tomato,and slightly higher than that in potato.The contents of iron,zinc, selenium were significantly higher than those in rapeseed,Chinese cabbage,white gourd,green pepper,eggplant,bitter gourd,tomato and potato,but lower than those in mushroom.In addition,the phosphate content in Cassia semen was also very high.Thus, cassia semen is rich in iron,zinc,selenium and phosphate compared with the generally used vegetables.It can be used as mineral supplement in healthy foods for humans.In conclusion,Cassia semen not only can be used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine,but also is suitable for healthy foods and drinks with the consumer popularity... |
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