5.7.1. Capparis spinosa L

Capparis spinosa is a well characterized and worldwide used food plant with several beneficial effects for human health, part of which attributable to its polysaccharide fraction (Mazarei et al., 2017). In 2012 Ji and coworkers synthesized a library of 17 samples of Se-Ps featured by a Se content in the range 2.44–5.54 mg /g. The polymer with the highest content of Se was assayed as an in vitro growth inhibitory agent against SGC-7901 (human gastric carcinoma) cell line by the MTT test in concentrations ranging from 50 μg/mL to 400 μg/mL and over a period of 72 h. A dose- and time-dependent effect was recorded: after 72 h and at the highest dose applied the growth inhibitory effect reached 70% while the one of the native polymer was only nearly 20%. The value obtained for the Se-P was comparable to the one revealed at the same time by doxorubicin (32 μg/mL) used as the reference.