Fresh vegetables are rich in phytochemicals such as polyphenols, anthocyanins and carotenoids. These phytochemicals show a great antioxidant effect. In this study, we investigated the effect of purple colored vegetables, including purple carrot (PC), red cabbage (RC) and beet (BT) on antioxidative in vitro and anti-colitic effect in C57BL/6J mice. The yellow carrot (YC) was used as a positive control. PC showed a great DPPH free radical scavenging activity than RC, BT and YC. Anthocyanins found in various fruits and vegetables showed many health beneficial activities such as antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticancer. Purple carrot contained cyanidin 3-O-(6-O-glycosyl-2-O-xylosylgalactoside), cyanidin-3-xylogalactoside, cyanidin 3-xylosyl(sinapolyglucosyl)galactoside, cyanidin 3-xylosyl(feruloylglucosyl) galactoside. In this study, we conducted to investigate the anticolitic effect of freeze-dried anthocyanin-rich purple carrot (PC), yellow carrot (YC), red cabbage (RC) and beet (BT) on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS, 2%)-induced colitis in C57BL/6J male mice. PC showed a strong activity to reduce the DSS-induced colon shortening and infiltration of inflammatory cells in the mice, and followed by RC, BT and YC. Administrated with PC also reduced the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukine-6 (IL-6), as well as reduced their mRNA expressions in the colon tissue on the colitis mice, which is compared with other sample-treated mice. In addition, PC treatment also decreased the colonic mRNA expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthases (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the mice.
And anti-obesity effect purple carrot (PC), yellow carrot (YC), red cabbage (RC) and beet (BT) on 45% HFD-induced obesity in C57BL/6J male mice was observed. PC was significantly effective on reduction of serum glucose and insulin in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. And PC had significantly lower level of adipogenesis-related leptin, and not significantly higher level of adiponectin, than other experimental groups.
Also, we investigated the anti-cancer effect of PC on azoxymethane (AOM)/DSS-based mouse colon cancer model, using C57BL/6J male mice. PC significantly suppressed shortening of colon length and expansion of tumor. The pathological analysis showed that PC was able to restore colon tissue from inflammatory status, while others failed to do so. Reduction on serum inflammatory factors including IL-6, TNF-α and IL-1β was significantly found on PC.
Type carrots from PC was significantly better than YC. These results suggest the PC was able to attenuate the inflammatory reaction in colitis. And PC had lower serum cardiovascular disease related TG, TC, glucose in obesity. Also tumor decrese in cororetal mice, used as an adjuvant to prevent the colitis in the future.