Health and Medicinal Benefits of Arugula Plant

Arugula is a collective name for a number of species of Brassicaceae with pungent leaves, but principally Eruca satia. Eruca sativa is an edible annual plan growing 20-100cm in height, leaves are deeply pinnately lobed with 4-10 small lateral lobes and commonly known as rocket salad, rucola, rugula, roquette and arugula. It is also an herb vegetable that belong to the Brassicaceae family and a native of central and southern Europe, but have also been spread to Northern America. It is typically grown on dry, disturbed ground. It is also considered as medicinal plant. In fact, it was known for its diuretics, astringent, emollient, digestive, laxative, depurative, tonic, rubefacient and stimulant. It exhibit antiulcer antiulcer effects, anticancer activity in preventing the Mclanoma growth and contain a broad range of phytochemical (e.g vitamin C, flavonoids, carotenoids, fibres and glucosinolaes) known by their health benefits. This Eruca sativa plant contains 67 volatile components representing 96.52% of the oil. It contains both saturated and unsaturated fatty acid. The nutritional value of food is due of the energy and nutrients necessary for the function of the human organism provided by food. High health promoting quality of food is primarily attributed to the presence of bioactive substances in its composition which stimulate the desirable process of metabolic transformation and to proportion of its individual bioactive components. The bioactive component of Eruca sativa includes oligosaccharides, amino acid, peptides, proteins, mineral nutrient and phenolic compound (e.g glycosides, alkaloids, and steroids).