Glucosinolates detoxified

A related glucosinolate glucoraphanin is found in broccoli, and is associated with beneficial medicinal properties of this vegetable. This is hydrolysed to the isothiocyanate sulforaphane, which is believed to induce carcinogen-detoxifying enzyme systems. 

Rapeseed is an important, worldwide-produced oilseed. However, after extraction of its oil, the full potential of its resulting meal has been limited because of the presence of large amounts of toxic, sulfur-containing compounds called gluco-sinolates. Rhee summarized various cooking methods that use moisture, heat, or added chemicals to detoxify glucosinolates (79). 

Glucosinolates are mainly degraded to nitriles and thioureylene compounds such as oxazolidinethiones (Figure 16.6). The nitriles are detoxified by sulfur transferases (Lang, 1933) to thiocyanate. Increased serum thiocyanate (SCN)... 

Falk KL, Gershenzon J (2007) The desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, detoxifies the glucosinolates of Schouwia purpurea by desulfation. J Chem Ecol 33 1542-1555. 

Figure 2.4 Summary of glucosinolate biosynthesis. Amino acids or elongated amino acids are converted to aldoximes by the action of enzymes encoded by the CYP79 gene family. The aidoxime conjugates with cysteine, which acts as the sulphur donor, which is then lysed and detoxified by glycosylation and sulphation. The MAM and CYP79 enzymes have a high degree of specificity to the amino acid structure, whereas other enzymes of the pathway have lower specificity.

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