Award details

Health benefits of glucosinolates and cruciferous vegetables

Reference	BBS/E/F/00044431
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Richard Mithen
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	4,148,062
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2010
End date	31/03/2018
Duration	95 months

Abstract

Glucosinolates are ß-thioglucoside-N-hydroxysulfates that accumulate in plants of the order Brassicales that include cruciferous vegetable and salad crops. Epidemiological studies have shown that diets rich in cruciferous vegetables are associated with benefits to health, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This project has two main objectives Firstly, to quantify how genetic and environmental factors interact to determine the level of glucosinolates and other bioactive compounds that accumulate in broccoli, and, secondly, to elucidate how consuming broccoli and other glucosinolate-containing functional foods affect the expression of biomarkers of health and healthy aging in humans, and identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. Metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches will be used to identify differences between broccoli cultivars with different levels of glucosinolates, and used to develop further broccoli genotypes for human intervention studies. Emphasis will be on the partitioning of sulphur between primary and secondary metabolism. This work will be complemented with elucidating the biological activity of glucosinolate degradation products and other bioactive compounds from broccoli with the use of a variety of model systems, and with short and longer term human intervention studies. Of particular interest is how isothiocyanates can perturb cell signalling pathways to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Ageing, Crop Science, Diet and Health, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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