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There are compelling evidences that oxidative stress plays important role in age‐related neurodegenerative diseases and natural food‐derived dietary antioxidants appear to be the first line of defence to take care of the oxidative stress. The analysis results of this study showed that Cili Burung of the hot pepper landraces contained the highest amount of TPC (1.00 mg/g DW), TFC (0.17 mg/g DW), capsaicinoids (0.05 mg/g), and the highest FRAP activity (439 mg/g DW). However, DPPH assay revealed the highest DPPH scavenging activity (IC50 = 250 μg/ml) in Halia Bara rhizome. Rhizomes of both landraces of ginger showed a significant amount of capsaicinoids. Hot pepper Cili Ungu (5.50 g/kg) and sweet pepper Cili Kulai had the highest P contents (~5.5 g/kg). Halia Bentong ginger rhizome had the highest content of K (33.84 g/kg); however, Halia Bentong ginger roots had remarkably greater contents of Ca (10.96 g/kg). Ginger rhizomes and roots had greater contents of micro minerals compared to hot and sweet chili peppers. Ginger roots contained good amounts of bioactive compounds and mineral nutrients indicating its commercial value. Practical applications: The findings of the research are truly very informative and potential for a greater health benefits of all types of health conscious generation of all ages. Depending on the greater contents of the measured bioactive compounds (total phenolics, flavonoids, capsaicinoids, and mineral nutrients) in Chili Burung from among the hot peppers and Cili Solok from among the sweet peppers and both ginger landraces may thus be suitable for commercial production and can serve as potential parents in breeding programs for enhanced phytonutrients constituents, or for use in related research. The presence of high phenolic and flavonoid contents in Chili Burung and gingers indicated their potentiality in pharmaceutical and ethnomedicinal uses. A good amount of bioactive compounds in ginger roots indicated its commercial value. And this is the first research reported on capsaicin in ginger; however, our findings do not preclude chemo‐profiling of capsaicinoids in ginger rhizomes for its inevitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

13 selected purslane accessions were subjected to five salinity levels 0, 8, 16, 24, and 32 dS m−1. Salinity effect was evaluated on the basis of biomass yield reduction, physiological attributes, and stem-root anatomical changes. Aggravated salinity stress caused significant (P<0.05) reduction in all measured parameters and the highest salinity showed more detrimental effect compared to control as well as lower salinity levels. The fresh and dry matter production was found to increase in Ac1, Ac9, and Ac13 from lower to higher salinity levels but others were badly affected. Considering salinity effect on purslane physiology, increase in chlorophyll content was seen in Ac2, Ac4, Ac6, and Ac8 at 16 dS m−1 salinity, whereas Ac4, Ac9, and Ac12 showed increased photosynthesis at the same salinity levels compared to control. Anatomically, stem cortical tissues of Ac5, Ac9, and Ac12 were unaffected at control and 8 dS m−1 salinity but root cortical tissues did not show any significant damage except a bit enlargement in Ac12 and Ac13. A dendrogram was constructed by UPGMA based on biomass yield and physiological traits where all 13 accessions were grouped into 5 clusters proving greater diversity among them. The 3-dimensional principal component analysis (PCA) has also confirmed the output of grouping from cluster analysis. Overall, salinity stressed among all 13 purslane accessions considering biomass production, physiological growth, and anatomical development Ac9 was the best salt-tolerant purslane accession and Ac13 was the most affected accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methanolic extracts of 13 accessions of purslane were analyzed for their total phenol content (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), and total carotenoid contents (TCC) and antioxidant activity of extracts was screened using FRAP assay and DPPH radical scavenging methods. The TPC, TFC, and TCC ranged from 0.96 ± 0.04 to 9.12 ± 0.29 mg GAE/g DW, 0.13 ± 0.04 to 1.44 ± 0.08 mg RE/g DW, and 0.52 ± 0.06 to 5.64 ± 0.09 mg (β-carotene equivalent) BCE/g DW, respectively. The DPPH scavenging (IC50) activity varied between 2.52±0.03 mg/mL and 3.29±0.01 mg/mL and FRAP ranged from 7.39±0.08 to 104.2±6.34 μmol TE/gDW. Among all the measured micro- and macrominerals K content was the highest followed by N, Na, Ca, Mg, P, Fe, Zn, and Mn. The overall findings proved that ornamental purslane was richer in antioxidant properties, whereas common purslane possesses more mineral contents than ornamental ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is an herbaceous leafy vegetable crop, comparatively more salt-tolerant than any other vegetables with high antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. Salt-tolerant crop variety development is of importance due to inadequate cultivable land and escalating salinity together with population pressure. In this view a total of 25 purslane accessions were initially selected from 45 collected purslane accessions based on better growth performance and subjected to 5 different salinity levels, that is, 0.0, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0, and 40.0 dSm-1 NaCl. Plant height, number of leaves, number of flowers, and dry matter contents in salt treated purslane accessions were significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) and the enormity of reduction increased with increasing salinity stress. Based on dry matter yield reduction, among all 25 purslane accessions 2 accessions were graded as tolerant (Ac7 and Ac9), 6 accessions were moderately tolerant (Ac3, Ac5, Ac6, Ac10, Ac11, and Ac12), 5 accessions were moderately susceptible (Ac1, Ac2, Ac4, Ac8, and Ac13), and the remaining 12 accessions were susceptible to salinity stress and discarded from further study. The selected 13 purslane accessions could assist in the identification of superior genes for salt tolerance in purslane for improving its productivity and sustainable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]