LOOK YOUNGER WITH PURPLE SWEET POTATO

During life, our  cells will always interact with free radicals that come from various sources, including from the results of metabolism in the body. The excess of free radicals is one of the causes of premature aging. To be able to live healthy and stay young, antioxidants are needed to ward off free radicals. Purple sweet potato tubers have been studied in various animal models proven to be able to ward off free radicals. In the elderly it turns out that purple sweet potato tuber extract can reduce blood pressure and reduce oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between antioxidants and oxidants / free radicals that usually occurs due to increased formation of free radicals or decreased availability of antioxidants. Oxidative stress will have a negative effect because it can cause oxidation of enzymes, proteins, DNA and lipids. As a result of oxidation, oxidative stress can cause various degenerative diseases such as coronary heart disease, accelerate the aging process and cancer. Antioxidants from purple tuber extract proven in animal models can overcome oxidative stress so it is thought to overcome degenerative diseases so that they can survive younger than biological age.

Antioxidants are substances that can inhibit, slow down or prevent oxidation processes by various mechanisms so as to prevent oxidative stress. In recent years, phytochemicals from various types of plants have attracted the attention of researchers, so that enough scientific work has been reported that phytochemicals, can reduce oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Therefore, phytochemicals are very important in preventing chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress, such as cancer, inflammation, atherosclerosis, and premature aging. Flavonoids are phytochemicals found in plants that have antioxidant properties. One type of flavonoids from plants that can function as antioxidants is a natural dye called anthocyanin. Anthocyanin levels are quite high found in various plants such as purple sweetpotato. Flavonoids which are secondary metabolites of plants are important components of plants that function to defend themselves when threatened by various stresses, especially as antioxidants due to exposure to the sun or ultraviolet light.

Flavonoids also play a role in regulating plant growth and responding to morphogenic stress from plants.

Flavonoids in human cells are also thought to play an important role as antioxidants even though their levels in the blood are very low. Flavonoids are also important in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of cells through the effect of regulating signals in cells, because flavonoids can interact with specific proteins in the intracellular signaling cascade process so that they can regulate cell differentiation, which causes the body to remain viable looking young.

Purple sweet potato contains high enough anthocyanin. Purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) Is one of the important food ingredients, as a source of energy and nutrition because it contains carbohydrates (80-85%), vitamins, and minerals. In addition to the nutritional values ​​of sweet potatoes, as a functional food because they contain various phytochemicals that may have beneficial effects on health. Purple sweet potato is very good for anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, free radical scavenger, antidiabetic, because it contains the highest anthocyanin compared to other types of sweet potato. The anthocyanin content of purple sweet potato is 6.23 mg / g dry matter with total phenol and higher antioxidant ability

Anthocyanins are a group of water-soluble pigments that belong to the flavonoid group. Anthocyanins are responsible for the color of vegetables and fruits such as red wine, berries, red cabbage and purple sweet potato. Anthocyanidins are aglycone anthocyanins found exclusively in nature which consist of: cyanidin, delphinidin, petunidin, peonidin, pelargonidin, and malvidin. Anthocyanin is a highly reactive compound and is easily degraded due to lack of electronic flavylium rings. The anthocyanins in purple sweet potato are cyanidin and paeonidin with antioxidant capabilities comparable to standard antioxidants butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). When compared between the various types of sweet potato with different colors it turns out that purple sweet potato has a higher total anthocyanin content so it has a higher antioxidant property.