Sprout - Netflix

Editor

Sprout is based on a popular manga by Nanba Atsuko that's been
serialized in 'Bessatsu Friend'. The love story in 'Sprout' evolves when
two high school students, named Souhei and Miku, start living under the
same roof after Miku's parents turn their home into a boarding house.

Type: Scripted

Languages: Japanese

Status: Ended

Runtime: 23 minutes

Premier: 2012-07-07

Sprout - Broccoli sprouts - Netflix

Broccoli sprouts are three- to four-day-old broccoli plants that look
like alfalfa sprouts, but taste like radishes.

Sprout - Glucosinolate and sulforaphane - Netflix

In 1992 a team of Johns Hopkins University scientists isolated a
cancer-fighting phytochemical in broccoli called glucoraphanin, which is
the glucosinolate precursor of sulforaphane (SGS). When chewed, broccoli
releases glucoraphanin and myrosinase, an enzyme found in another part
of the plant cell, which work together to produce sulforaphane, which,
in turn, activates a transcription factor, Nrf2 in the cell. Once
activated, Nrf2 then translocates to the nucleus of the cell, where it
aligns itself with the antioxidant response element (ARE) in the
promoter region of target genes. The target genes are associated with a
process that assists in regulating cellular defences. Such
cytoprotective genes include that for glutathione. Around 200 genes have
been well-characterised, as many as 1700 are thought to be related to
this aspect of cellular defense. The 1992 study was followed by the
discovery in 1997 that glucoraphanin is in higher concentrations in the
three- to four-day-old broccoli sprouts, at least 20 times the
concentration of full grown broccoli. Broccoli sprouts are rich in
sulforaphane, a compound that is under investigation for its anti-cancer
properties. Eating broccoli sprouts is not however considered to be a
means of targeting cancer with sulforaphane. Broccoli sprouts contain a
particular glucosinolate compound, glucoraphanin, which is found in
vacuoles within the cytoplasm of the plant cell. The membrane of the
plant cells also contain an enzyme, myrosinase, which is walled off from
the vacuoles of glucoraphanin. Only when the plant cell is ruptured by
cutting, chewing, etc. do the two substances come into contact with each
other. In the moist environment of the cell, this leads to a chemical
reaction wherein the myrosinase converts the glucoraphanin to an
isothiocyanate, sulforaphane. It is predominantly the sulforaphane for
which broccoli sprouts have been so widely researched. The glucoraphanin
of itself is inert.