Marigold is a 1-year-old herb belonging to marigold in the composite family, also known as smelly hibiscus, wormwood, longevity lamp, etc. it is harvested in summer and autumn. Its stem is strong and upright, its leaf margin has glands, releases peculiar smell, and its head is solitary, yellow to orange. Marigold is native to Mexico, with fewer diseases and insect pests and strong viability. Marigold can be used as the main plant source for extracting lutein, and the human body can obtain lutein through food intake, which can prevent senile macular degeneration. Lutein can also prevent a variety of chronic diseases and has the functions of anti-cancer, anti cardiovascular diseases and improving body immunity.
Physiological activity of lutein in Marigold
Antioxidant activity
Marigold flower is the main raw material for lutein extraction. As a kind of tetraterpenoids, lutein contains rich conjugated double bonds, has strong ability to scavenge free radicals, and can effectively prevent the damage of oxygen free radicals to cells. Some scholars studied and analyzed the scavenging effects of marigold lutein on peroxide, superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical and lipid radical by chemiluminescence method. The results showed that lutein had a strong scavenging effect on the above free radicals. The synergistic antioxidant activity of lutein and zeaxanthin was studied by using two methods based on in vitro antioxidant and in vivo antioxidant based on ethanol oxidative damage model in mice. The results showed that the synergistic antioxidant effect was better when the ratio of lutein to zeaxanthin was 1:2. In the study of lutein and brain ω- In the relationship between polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) oxidation, it was found that mitochondrial lutein was negatively correlated with docosatetraenoic acid (DHA) oxidation products. The accumulation of subcellular lutein and its relationship with DHA oxidation in primate brain were studied, suggesting that lutein may be related to antioxidant function in brain.
