Health benefits of glucosinolates and cruciferous vegetables

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Glucosinolates are ß-thioglucoside-N-hydroxysulfates that accumulate in plants of the order Brassicales that include cruciferous vegetable and salad crops. Epidemiological studies have shown that diets rich in cruciferous vegetables are associated with benefits to health, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This project has two main objectives Firstly, to quantify how genetic and environmental factors interact to determine the level of glucosinolates and other bioactive compounds that accumulate in broccoli, and, secondly, to elucidate how consuming broccoli and other glucosinolate-containing functional foods affect the expression of biomarkers of health and healthy aging in humans, and identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. Metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches will be used to identify differences between broccoli cultivars with different levels of glucosinolates, and used to develop further broccoli genotypes for human intervention studies. Emphasis will be on the partitioning of sulphur between primary and secondary metabolism. This work will be complemented with elucidating the biological activity of glucosinolate degradation products and other bioactive compounds from broccoli with the use of a variety of model systems, and with short and longer term human intervention studies. Of particular interest is how isothiocyanates can perturb cell signalling pathways to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

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