Assessment of antioxidant and antiproliferative properties of spinach plants grown under low oxygen availability

Background In the human diet, consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is important in maintaining a good health status and in preventing chronic diseases. It is known that plant derived food is a powerful source of chemopreventive molecules i.e. antioxidants, and spinach (Spinacia oleracea L., Chenopodiaceae) possesses a wide range of metabolites with such biological activity. Plant stress response could lead to the production of metabolites with high value for human health and this could be a tool to enhance the production of molecules with antioxidant activity in plants. Results Data reported in this paper confirm the antioxidant properties of spinach plants, and show a strong antiproliferative activity of leaf extract on HT-29 human cell line. Besides, the hypoxic stress seems to affect the pool of antioxidant molecules present in spinach leaves, as verified by means of HPLC-MS/MS analysis and the aluminium chloride and ABTS assays. Conclusion Our findings - represents a hint for an improvement in the biological and pharmacological properties of spinach plants, being the growth condition a strategy to modulate the spinach phytocomplex profile.