The present study aimed to investigate the effect of young leaves on fat accumulation in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. A potent preventive effect on fat accumulation was observed in fractions of young leaves of spinach, beet, and arugula extracted with a low-polarity solvent (hexane:acetone:ethanol:toluene = 10:6:7:6). This effect was seemingly associated with the leaf carotenoid content, including lutein, β-carotene, and neoxanthin. Among these, only neoxanthin, with the characteristic structure of 5,6-monoepoxide and an allenic bond, significantly prevented fat accumulation in a dose-dependent manner. The preventive effect and carotenoid content, including neoxanthin, of these young leaves did not differ from those of the corresponding adult leaves. Therefore, our study demonstrated that young vegetable leaves, such as spinach, beet, and arugula leaves, contained neoxanthin, which prevented fat accumulation in adipocytes in vitro. In the future, the effectiveness of such young leaves and neoxanthin should be investigated in vivo.

中文翻译：

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蔬菜幼叶中的新黄质可防止分化脂肪细胞中的脂肪积累。

本研究旨在研究幼叶对分化的 3T3-L1 脂肪细胞中脂肪积累的影响。在用低极性溶剂（己烷:丙酮:乙醇:甲苯 = 10:6:7:6）提取的菠菜、甜菜和芝麻菜的幼叶部分中观察到对脂肪积累的有效预防作用。这种效果似乎与叶类胡萝卜素含量有关，包括叶黄素、β-胡萝卜素和新黄质。其中，只有具有 5,6-单环氧化物和丙二烯键的特征结构的新黄质以剂量依赖性方式显着阻止脂肪积累。这些幼叶的预防效果和类胡萝卜素含量，包括新黄素，与相应的成年叶没有区别。因此，我们的研究表明，嫩蔬菜叶，如菠菜、甜菜、芝麻菜叶含有新黄质，可防止体外脂肪细胞中的脂肪积累。将来，应该在体内研究这种嫩叶和新黄质的有效性。