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Crusty, green, semi-red and red colored lettuce is really an incredible vegetable filled with necessary nutrients that boost health. Undeniably, it is one of the most preferred greens for yummy sandwiches and hale and hearty salads!
Some prefer the green type and others delight with semi-red because it carries another hue to their salad greens, while others still favor red colored lettuce. Recognized for their antioxidant properties, people love them and munch on them for crispiness of this vegetable. And it has been found out in research that the color of lettuce defines the pace of its antioxidant effect.
The study was participated by UPV/EHU and University of Pisa, Italy. Three varieties, ‘Batavia’, the green leaf, ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’, the semi-red leaf and ‘Oak Leaf’, the red-leaf were examined. They utilized the effective techniques of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) during the analysis. With EPR, the researchers were able to spot each variety’s behavior of the kinetics of the compounds. Here are the results:
Green-leaf lettuce – It comprises water-soluble, antioxidant compounds. The antioxidants pace is from slow to intermediate speed.
The semi-red lettuce – It contains three compound types with a fast, transitional and slow kinetics.
The red-leaf lettuce – It has compounds with fast and transitional kinetics.
Enhancing the properties
After identifying the kinetics of the antioxidants, the research team are yearning to accomplish nutraceutical development of the three lettuce varieties. They are involved in an endeavor to improve the effect of each particular compound found in each lettuce variety by exposing the foliage to short pressures.
The compounds found in lettuce carry out resistance roles in plants. Hence, if settings that are not normal are being applied to the plants like higher carbon dioxide water concentrations, salinated water, exposing them to high lighting intensity, these conditions will be increased that will result to boosted plants’ antioxidant properties.
