Lepidium Sativum Mucilage: From Characterization to Prebiotic Assessment

Cress or garden cress (Lepidium sativum) has been widely reported for its numerous pharmacological activities. The cress seeds possess numbers of nutraceutical values from rubefacient, galactogogue, laxative to diuretic properties. In the current study mucilage is extracted from the seeds of Lepidium sativum by different methods and further purified exploiting the method of Munir et al. with slight modification. Chemical characterization confirmed the presence of carbohydrate, mucilage and polysaccharide. Proximate analysis confirmed the presence of crude fats, proteins, fibers and carbohydrates. FTIR analysis of Lepidium sativum mucilage shows presence of O-H, C-H and C=O functional group. We further investigated the prebiotic potential of Lepidium sativum L. seeds mucilage on different lactobacilli strains. The quantification of the total reducing sugar in the mucilage was attained by Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometric method. The mucilage exhibited efficient resistance against α-amylase and artificial gastric juice hydrolysis compared to standard prebiotic inulin. The mucilage also exhibited efficient activity necessary for the augmentation of almost all strains of lactobacilli. In vitro studies also exhibited that lactobacilli amount was at par to standard prebiotics (p<0.05) in the medium supplemented with the mucilage. Further stability studies confirmed the stability of L. sativum mucilage over a period of six months making it a potential prebiotic nutrient supplement and pharmaceutical excipient.