Glucosinolate- and Sulforaphane-Enriched Broccoli Extract as a Potential Dual-Action Antioxidant and Elastase Inhibitor.
- 1Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada.
Abstract
Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a widely cultivated cruciferous vegetable recognized for its rich content of bioactive phytochemicals with documented health-promoting properties. Fresh broccoli florets represent a rich yet underutilized source of bioactive phytochemicals, particularly glucosinolates, with established health benefits. This study optimized ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) using aqueous ethanol to recover glucosinolates and sulforaphane. Total glucosinolate content (TGC) was quantified spectrophotometrically, while sulforaphane, glucoraphanin and glucobrassicin were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS). Under the optimized UAE conditions (25% ethanol, 41 °C, 32 min), the predicted yield of TGC was 46.6 mg of sinigrin equivalents (SE)/g dry weight (DW), while the actual yield achieved was 36.6 ± 4.4 mg of SE/g DW. Among the compared extraction methods, UAE with 25% ethanol yielded the highest TGC, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) with values of 35.5 ± 1.26 mg of SE/g DW, 21.2 ± 2.6 µmol of Trolox equivalents (TE)/g DW, and 156 ± 15.2 µmol of TE/g DW, respectively, with TGC and FRAP being significantly higher than all other methods (p < 0.05), while ORAC differences were not statistically significant. In vitro anti-elastase activity was the greatest in the extracts prepared using shaker-assisted extraction (IC₅₀ of 0.51 mg/mL) and UAE-25% ethanol (IC₅₀ of 0.86 mg/mL). Collectively, these findings position UAE with aqueous ethanol as a promising extraction approach for recovering glucosinolates and sulforaphane from broccoli florets for cosmeceutical applications, providing a basis for future scale-up and process optimization studies.
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BibTeX
@article{chaturvedi2026glucosinolate,
title = {{Glucosinolate- and Sulforaphane-Enriched Broccoli Extract as a Potential Dual-Action Antioxidant and Elastase Inhibitor.}},
author = {Chandrika Chaturvedi and H P Vasantha Rupasinghe},
journal = {Foods (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/foods15193431},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883538},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Glucosinolate- and Sulforaphane-Enriched Broccoli Extract as a Potential Dual-Action Antioxidant and Elastase Inhibitor.
AU - Chandrika Chaturvedi
AU - H P Vasantha Rupasinghe
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/25
JO - Foods (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/foods15193431
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883538
AB - Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a widely cultivated cruciferous vegetable recognized for its rich content of bioactive phytochemicals with documented health-promoting properties. Fresh broccoli florets represent a rich yet underutilized source of bioactive phytochemicals, particularly glucosinolates, with established health benefits. This study optimized ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) using aqueous ethanol to recover glucosinolates and sulforaphane. Total glucosinolate content (TGC) was quantified spectrophotometrically, while sulforaphane, glucoraphanin and glucobrassicin were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS). Under the optimized UAE conditions (25% ethanol, 41 °C, 32 min), the predicted yield of TGC was 46.6 mg of sinigrin equivalents (SE)/g dry weight (DW), while the actual yield achieved was 36.6 ± 4.4 mg of SE/g DW. Among the compared extraction methods, UAE with 25% ethanol yielded the highest TGC, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) with values of 35.5 ± 1.26 mg of SE/g DW, 21.2 ± 2.6 µmol of Trolox equivalents (TE)/g DW, and 156 ± 15.2 µmol of TE/g DW, respectively, with TGC and FRAP being significantly higher than all other methods (p < 0.05), while ORAC differences were not statistically significant. In vitro anti-elastase activity was the greatest in the extracts prepared using shaker-assisted extraction (IC₅₀ of 0.51 mg/mL) and UAE-25% ethanol (IC₅₀ of 0.86 mg/mL). Collectively, these findings position UAE with aqueous ethanol as a promising extraction approach for recovering glucosinolates and sulforaphane from broccoli florets for cosmeceutical applications, providing a basis for future scale-up and process optimization studies.
SN - 2304-8158
ER -