Chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract can lead to serious health problems including obesity and type II diabetes, from which nearly 60 million individuals are suffered in the United States. Dietary intake of natural anti-inflammatory compounds is a promising way to ameliorate the chronic inflammation. The research team elucidated that soybean sprouts have anti-inflammatory activity in cultured human intestinal cells. Their health benefits are being tested in an animal experiment. However, so far, the bioactive molecules responsible for the observed anti-inflammatory activity have not been identified since there are too many candidate molecules in the digested soybean sprout. This project aims to identify the compounds with anti-inflammatory activities in soybean sprouts by a chemical screening approach. The compounds in the GI-digested soybean sprouts will be separated into groups based on their properties and the groups showing the anti-inflammatory activity will be further separated in the next cycle. The list of the candidate molecules will be selected to dozens through multiple screening cycles, and the bioactivity of each candidate molecule will be confirmed by the human cell culture assays using authentic compounds. Once the bioactive compounds are identified, the information can be used to generate soybean varieties producing sprouts with enhanced anti-inflammatory activities and/or can open new ways to use soybean sprouts as an ingredient for functional foods to ameliorate inflammatory disorders.

Chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract often leads to various chronic metabolic disorders including obesity and type II diabetes. Daily dietary intake of anti-inflammatory compounds from natural foods draws significant attention to prevent chronic inflammation. The research team elucidated in the FY19 research project funded by NSB that the soybean sprout germinated for four days can exhibit anti-inflammatory activity in cultured human intestinal cells after simulated gastrointestinal digestion. The in vivo anti-inflammatory effects of the sprouted soybean are being tested using mouse model in the FY20 project. In this FY22 project, the anti-inflammatory bioactive compounds in soybean sprouts will be identified, which can be used as biochemical markers for generating soybean genotypes with enhanced anti-inflammatory activity in a future project.

Objective 1: Fractionation of phytochemicals in digested soybean sprouts
Objective 2: Identification of bioactive compounds in the bioactive fractions

Large amount of soybean sprout will be collected and processed in the first quarter of the project period to obtain sufficient amount of material. In the meantime, identification of the chemical classes including bioactive compounds will also be conducted. The large-scale chemical fractionation will be performed and the compounds in each fraction will be determined in the second quarter. Candidate molecules will be further selected, and the authentic compounds will be obtained in the third quarter. Their anti-inflammatory activity will be tested in the third and fourth quarters.

Updated June 27, 2023:

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Identification of the bioactive compounds will lead to enhance health beneficial traits of the food soybean varieties, industrial use of the soybean as a health beneficial food material, and consumer perception of the soybean derived foods.

Identification of bioactive compounds will facilitate the identification of the alleles responsible for the health beneficial trait and breeding of the soybean lines with high anti-inflammatory activity. Assays of anti-inflammatory activity are incompatible with high-throughput analyses which are often required for these applications. Once the chemicals responsible for the activity are identified, they can be determined in the sprouts with reasonable effort and used as the biochemical markers representing the bioactivity. Generation of the soybean lines with high anti-inflammatory activity
will enhance the market values of food soybean. Additionally, identification of the bioactive compounds opens the way to use soybean sprouts as an ingredient for functional foods products with potential of reducing inflammatory disorders.