Functional Beverage Containing Extracts of Plants of the Family Brassicaceae to Improve the Immune System

The immune system is closely related to human health. Accordingly, functional foods containing bioactive compounds can be considered as of the immune system bossters. The aim of the present study was to produce a functional beverage containing extracts of family Brassicaceae plants (white cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower) to improve the immune system in female laboratory mice. For this purpose, hydroethanolic extracts were prepared from four types of cabbage, then the amount of total phenolic and flavonoid compounds and antioxidant capacity by DPPH method for extracts were evaluated. The functional beverage were prepared by combining four extracts with concentrations of 400 and 800 mg/ml and laboratory mice were fed daily with doses of 1 cc for 15 consecutive days. Immune system was assessed by examining IgG, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10 and IL-17 by Noncompetitive ELISA method. The results showed high levels of phenol (1.63±0.024 mg GA/g) and total flavonoids (0.426±0.004 mg QE/g) in white cabbage hydroethanolic extract. Also in DPPH method, the highest rate of free radical scavenging was related to red cabbage with 98.26% at a concentration of 800 mg/ml. The results of immune system evaluation showed that three factors of IgG, IL-10 and IL-17 in mice were increased by increasing the concentration of the extract to 800 mg/ml in the functional beverage; IgG factor increased to 10.81±6.68 mg/ml in the control group and to 27.35±20.86 mg/ml in the third group with 800 mg/ml extract concentration. The results showed that the extracts of plants of the Brassicaceae family have a high potential for use in food products with the aim of increasing the quality and nutritional value.