Elucidation of The Functional Constituents of Plants Traditionally Used for Food Preservation

这项研究的目的是寻找和使用具有防止食物变质特性的天然产品。在这项研究中，我们把重点放在传统上用来包装食物的植物叶子上。这些植物可能含有一些对食品保存有用的特性，如抗氧化和抗菌活性。在调查的基础上，我们选择了主要产于冲绳群岛的11种有潜力的植物。研究了这些叶提取物的抗氧化活性和自由基清除能力。其中4种具有显著的抗氧化活性。从YOMOGI （Artemisia princeps）中分离到7种抗氧化剂，包括二咖啡酰奎宁酸。从吉野地区用于包裹寿司的KAKI （Diospyros KAKI）叶片中分离得到的山酚对一种蛀牙细菌变形链球菌具有较高的抑菌活性。从鸢尾草中发现5个抗菌化合物，并对其结构进行了鉴定，其中包括2个新的二芳基环丁烯类化合物。所有化合物均能有效抑制金黄色链球菌的生长。我们目前的研究表明，上述植物的成分可能对食品保鲜有用。

This study has aimed to find and use natural products which possess the properties to prevent food deterioration. In this research we have focused on the plant leaves which have been traditionally used to wrap foods. These plants might contain some useful properties for food preservation such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activity.We selected promising eleven plants collected mainly in Okinawa islands based on our survey. The extracts of those leaves were examined for antioxidant activity and radical scavenging ability. Four of them showed remarkable antioxidant activity.From YOMOGI (Artemisia princeps ), 7 polyphenols were isolated as antioxidants including dicaffeoylquinic acids. Kaempherol was isolated from KAKI (Diospyros kaki) leaves, which are used to wrap SUSHI in Yoshino, was revealed to show high antimicrobial activity against Streptocuccus mutans, a tooth-decaying bacteria. Five antimicrobial compounds were found from IRIOMOTEKUMATAKERAN (Alpinia flavellata) and determined their structures including two new distyrylcyclobutenoids. All compounds strongly inhibited the growth of Streptococcus aureus.Our present study suggests that the constituents of the above plants could be useful for food preservation.