Potential of the Common Ice Plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum as a New High-Functional Food as Evaluated by Polyol Accumulation

We measured the concentration of polyols (pinitol, ononitol and myo-inositol), which are known to have health-promoting and/or disease-preventing functions in We common ice plant. crystallinum L.) cultured under salt- and drought-stressed treatments. In NaCl-treated plant the concentration of pinitol/ononitol increased with increasing NaCl concentration culture solution. The maximal concentration was 3.6 mg g(-1) FW, which was found in the shoot top, followed by small side shoots (2.1 mg g(-1) FW) of mature plants grown with 400 mM NaCl for 35 ds The drought sums also accelerated the accumulation or pinitol ononitol. The maximal concentration was 1.2 mg g(-1) FW, which was found in the shoot top of plants under die stress for 25 ds. The myo-inositol increased ill salt-stressed plants at 3 ds after We start or the treatment and then decreased with the lapse of time during stress. The concentration of polyols in Me We plant was comparable to that in the other Species reported to accumulate polyols at. high levels. Radical scavenging activity evaluated by DPPH assay was increased two-fold by 400 mM NaCl treatment, which was twice as high as that in the leaves or lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). These results indicated Me high potential or We ice plant in a polyol-rich high-functional food.