Studies on the Growth of Spinach Leaves (Spinacea oleracea)

Abstract

Green leafy vegetables have excellent content of vitamins as well as minerals and also contain an enormous variety of bioactive components which provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the proximate composition by standard AOAC method, antioxidant properties and DPPH free radicals scavenging activity of aqueous extract of Brassica oleracea and Spinacea oleracea. The study revealed that crude fiber, protein, iron and calciumcontent in Brassica oleracea was significantly increased by 41%, 41.6%, 8.7% and 37.23% respectively, when compared to Spinacea oleracea at p≤0.05 level. In aqueous extract of S.oleracea recorded the higher content of total phenols and total flavonoids i.e 41.2±0.18 mg GAE/g and 20.40±1.23 mg QE/g respectively as compared with B.oleracea. Although both leaves extract showed good amount of antioxidant components whereas free radical scavenging activity was higher B.oleracea leaves (IC 50-26 µg/ml) while S.oleracea had (IC 50-48µg/ml) when compared to standard ascorbic acid. The study may conclude that Brassica oleracea leaves are as good as Spinacea oleracia leaves which could be incorporated in food formulation as therapeutic agent apart from its nutritional essence which could be explored to provide affordable remedy to masses.

Computational Method for Quantifying Growth Patterns at the Adaxial Leaf Surface in Three Dimensions

“…Moreover, the growth patterns we observed are consistent with other leaf growth analyses, which have shown a similar proximodistal gradient in growth rates in Arabidopsis (Wiese et al, 2007) as well as in other species, such as tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum; Avery, 1933;Poethig and Sussex, 1985;Walter and Schurr, 1999;Walter et al, 2003), sunflower (Helianthus annuus; Granier and Tardieu, 1998), grape (Vitis vinifera; Wolf et al, 1986), spinach (Spinacia oleracea; Saurer and Possingham, 1970), cocklebur (Xanthium pensylvanicum; Maksymowych, 1959;Erickson, 1966), ivy (Hedera helix; Wang et al, 2011), and poplar (Populus spp. ; Taylor et al, 2003).…”

“…Early efforts to measure leaf growth involved drawing ink dots on the adaxial leaf surface to delineate a grid of small rectangles whose deformations over time could be used to calculate regional growth rates (Avery, 1933;Richards and Kavanagh, 1943). Other studies since then have employed the same concept of quantifying growth at the adaxial leaf surface by tracking ink marks (Maksymowych, 1962;Saurer and Possingham, 1970;Poethig and Sussex, 1985;Granier and Tardieu, 1998;Wang et al, 2011) or vein intersections (Maksymowych, 1959;Erickson, 1966;Wolf et al, 1986;Walter and Schurr, 1999;Taylor et al, 2003;Walter et al, 2003). Recently, digital image sequence analysis tools have been developed to automatically track the displacement of identifiable features in successive images of a leaf (Schmundt et al, 1998;Ainsworth et al, 2005;Wiese et al, 2007).…”

Influence of Leaf Differentiation on the Developmental Pathway of Coleus Chloroplasts

“…It has long been known that in leaves there is a differentiation gradient along the long axis (Avery, 1933;Saurer and Possingham, 1970;Steer, 1971). Cells at the leaf tip develop faster than cells in other parts of the leaf.…”

Plastid Division and Development

“…The population dynamics of chloroplasts have been analyzed in detail in expanding mesophyll cells of young wheat leaves (Boffey et al, 1979;Boffey and Leech, 1982;Dean and Leech, 1982;Ellis et al, 1983;Ellis and Leech, 1985) and spinach leaves (Possingham and Saurer, 1969;Saurer and Possingham, 1970;Cran and Possingham, 1972;Possingham and Smith, 1972;Possingham et al, 1975). These studies showed a correlation between the existence of dumbbell-shaped dividing chloroplasts in cells and a subsequent increase in chloroplast number per cell.…”