Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2021; 10(2): 1201-1207
E-ISSN: 2278-4136
P-ISSN: 2349-8234
www.phytojournal.com
JPP 2021; 10(2): 1201-1207
Received: 14-01-2021
Accepted: 19-02-2021
An updated review on Malabar spinach (Basella
alba and Basella rubra) and their importance
Ajay Chaurasiya
Department of Plant Pathology,
C.S.A. University of Agriculture
and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar
Pradesh, India
Ajay Chaurasiya, Rajesh Kumar Pal, Pradeep Kumar Verma, Avineet
Katiyar, Razauddin and Narendra Kumar
Rajesh Kumar Pal
Department of Soil Science,
Rama University, FASAI,
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
Recent studies have shown fruits from less-known and unexplored plants as an excellent source of
nutrients and biologically active compounds for food and non-food applications (Khan et al. 2011, 2015).
Basella plant is extremely heat tolerant and fast-growing perennial vine which is wildly cultivated as a
cool-season vegetable. Basella alba is also known as Malabar spinach, Indian spinach, Ceylon spinach,
climber spinach and vine spinach. In India, it is commonly known as “Poi”. Red-violet colour of leaves,
stalks, petioles and fruits are due to the presence of betalains (Palada et al. 1999). This crop is suitable for
both home and market garden in the lowland tropics. This plant is full of nutrition like normal spinach.
Also, the oil obtained from its seeds can become the source of safe vegetable oil. This plant is good for
health due to the presence of mineral, protein, oil, carbohydrate, fibre, carotenoid, organic acid, vitamins.
In the winter season, Malabar spinach can be used in place of normal spinach as it has similar Nutritional
and medicinal value. Basella plant species contain betacyanin, carotenoids, bioflavonoids, β-sitosterol
and lupeol which are reported to have antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory
activities etc. and help in curing various diseases, namely anticancer, antiviral, antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anti-cholesterol, anti-ulcer, antimicrobial, anti-hypoglycemic, wound healing, androgenic
from the ancient times. Leaf juice is used in to treat catarrh and it is also an as safe laxative for children,
pregnant women and in a urinary diseased patient. In Ayurveda Malabar spinach is called as “Upodika”,
“Potaki”, “Malvaa”, “Amritvallari”, and in Siddha/Tamil as “Vaslakkirai” (Khare, 2004). It used as a
vegetable in many countries like Philippines, Thailand China, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka and many
African countries. In India, In Andhra Pradesh curry of Basella and Yam is made popularly known as
Kanda Bachali Koora, in Odisha, it is used to make Curries and Saaga.
Pradeep Kumar Verma
Department of Agronomy,
CSAUT, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Avineet Katiyar
Department of Horticulture,
CSAUT, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Razauddin
Department of Horticulture,
BBAU, Lucknow, Uttar
Pradesh, India
Narendra Kumar
Department of Entomology,
CSAUT, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Corresponding Author:
Ajay Chaurasiya
Department of Plant Pathology,
C.S.A. University of Agriculture
and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar
Pradesh, India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/phyto.2021.v10.i2p.13974
Keywords: Malabar Spinach, Basella, Poi, Gomphrenin-I, Upodika
Introduction
Origin of Basella alba is India and Indonesia and it naturally has grown in tropical Asia and
tropical Africa (Saroj et al 2012) [65]. Malabar spinach is extremely heat tolerant and fastgrowing perennial vine which is wildly cultivated as a cool-season vegetable. Fruits are fleshy,
stalkless, spherical and purple in colour. In India, it is commonly known as “Poi” found all
over the country, except hills. The plant is a succulent, branched, smooth, twining and
herbaceous vine reaching a length of several meters. The stems are green or purplish. The
leaves are heart- shaped (cordate leaves), 5 to 12 cm in length, stalked with a pointed tip
(Harold, 1963) [25].
Two species of Basella (Basella rubra L. and Basella alba L) identified by Carl Linnaeus.
Both two species Basella rubra L. and Basella alba L are differentiated by their leaf
characteristics and stem colours. Malabar spinach belongs to the Basellaceae family
(Deshmukh, 2014) [15]. The stem of Basella alba is green in colour with bigger stem than the
red-stemmed Basella rubra.
Malabar spinach has been used to cure various diseases, namely anticancer, antiviral,
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cholesterol, anti-ulcer, antimicrobial, anti-hypoglycemic,
wound healing, androgenic from the ancient times (Shade et al. 2017) [68]. This plant is used
for the cure of many skin problems, diarrhoea, dysentery and also used as a laxative. Basella
plant show antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activities due to the
presence of betacyanin, carotenoids, bioflavonoids, β-sitosterol and lupeol (Moutusi et al
2019) [51]. Juice of leaves and stem are used as laxatives for children and pregnant women. In
Ayurveda Malabar spinach is called as “Upodika”, “Potaki”, “Malvaa”, “Amritvallari”, and in
Siddha/Tamil as “Vaslakkirai” (Khare, 2004) [31].
Malabar spinach is also rich in vitamins A, and C, Iron and Calcium (Haskell 2004) [26]. The
leaves contain carotenoids, organic acids, water-soluble polysaccharides, bioflavonoid,
betacyanin, and vitamin K. Fruit extract of Basella alba plant were used as an acid-base
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indicator, to detect the endpoint of acid-base titrations (Mitra
et al. 2016) [49]. Many Indian states consumption of Basella
alba as the vegetable is quite common. Consumption in
Nigeria, India (Tongco et al. 2015) [73], Bangladesh (Haskell
et al 2004) [27] and so many other countries like China,
Philippines, Thailand indicates that Basella alba does not
possess any toxicity.
English, “Lu luo kui” in Chinese, “Pazu” in Turkish, “Mong
toi” in Vietnamese (Eland, S., 2008) [18], “Espinaca blanca de
Malabar” in Spanish, “Basella” in French, “Spinacio della
cina” in Italian “indischer spinat” in German (Eland, 2008 and
Deshmukh et al 2014) [18, 15], “Alugbati” in Flipino,
Philippines (Tongco et al. 2015) [73] and “Amunututu” in the
Yoruba language of Nigeria (Alakinde et al. 2014) [5].
Taxonomy
Term “Basella” derived from Malayalam word, given by
Linnaeus. Linnaeus first described two species of Basella L.
i.e. Basella rubra and Basella alba in his book “Species
Plantarum” in 1753 (Khare 2007) [32] based on their leaf
character and stem colour. Roxburg (1832) was the first
person who called all three name Basella alba, Basella rubra
and Basella lucida are synonyms and adapt Basella alba as a
correct name (Sidwell 1999) [69]. According to Echo plant
information sheet, two colour forms of Basella are not
separate species and the first species having a green stem and
green leaf are identified as Basella alba L. while the second
species having a red stem and red leaves are found, is
identified as Basella alba L. var. cordifolia (Lamk.) Almeida
(Almeida 2003) [6].
Basella alba is also known as Malabar spinach, Indian
spinach, Ceylon spinach, climber spinach and vine spinach
(Roy et al 2010, Sen et al 2010) [63, 67]. Name of Basella alba
in a different language of the world is “Malabar spinach” in
Morphology
Malabar spinach is a perennial vine with fibrous roots. The
stem of Malabar spinach is fleshy, succulent, thin, smooth,
bright and leaves are distributed spirally. Side branching also
observed in the stem. Stem length is about 8 to10 m. The leaf
stalk is short and leaf is oblong as the leaf length is longer
than its width. Flowers of Basella alba are white, red or pink
depending on the variety. Fruits colour is red or black. The
surface of the seed is bright and rough with black and brown
in colour. Thick testa is present around the seed. Seeds can
remain viable for four years under optimum conditions.
(Almeida, 2003, Mahr, 2014) [6, 41].
Cytological, pollen morphological and protein profile studies
of both red and green stemmed Basella plant confirmed that
both plant are generated from same Basella alba l. species
(Roy et al. 2010) [63]. According to Echo plant information
sheet, The plant with green stem and green petiole is Basella
alba L. while the red stem and red petiole is Basella alba L.
var. cordifolia (Lamk.) Almeida (Almeida 2003) [6].
Table 1: Characters of Basella alba l. and Basella alba l.var. cordifolia (lamk.) almeida (Almeida, 2003) [6]
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Character
Basella alba L.
Stem
Fleshy, stout at the base with slender upper branches.
Basella alba l.var. cordifolia (lamk.) almeida
Very long, slender, succulent, glabrous and much-branched.
Broadly ovate, acute or acuminate, thick, apiculate with a
Leaves Auxiliary dark green, broadly ovate in shape and acute.
cordate base.
Flower
White, pink or red in colour and sub sessile.
White or red in colour, sessile in few lax pedunculate spikes.
Bracts
Scaly and small.
Small and apiculate.
Bracteoles
Acute.
Longer.
Black or dark purple in colour and enclosed within the
Fruit
Small and red or black in colour.
persistent fleshy calyx.
Seed
Black, globose.
Black
Pigments of Basella spp.
Leaves and fruits contain Betacyanin and Flavonoid pigments.
Major red pigments present in dye extract of Basella alba is
gomphrenin-I, which is the compound of betalain family.
Red-violet colour of leaves (Cyunel 1989) [13], stalks, petioles
and fruits are due to the presence of betalains (Palada et al.
1999) [57]. Natural colour pigment anthocyanin is also present
in stem, leaves and flowers (Glassgen et al 1993) [21].
Betalains are the red or yellow coloured tyrosine derived
pigments present in many plants such as Beetroot,
bougainvillaea, amaranthus and opuntia. Betalains content in
leaves and fruits of Basella plant is less than the tubers of beet
(Kumar et al. 2016) [36]. Betalains, extracted from B. Vulgaris
and the prickly pear Opuntia ficus- indica are used in food
(Delgado-Varges et al. 2002) [14]. Betalains extracted from
fruits of Basella plant are also used in food formulations
(Kumar et al. 2015) [37]. It is considered as an alternative of
synthetic colourants because of its positive effects on health
(Lin et al. 2010, Khan et al. 2012) [39, 30] and also uses in the
pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry (Khan et al. 2015) [28].
Due to the presence of pigments, fruit extract of Basella alba
can be used as a natural colourant on fabrics (Mitra et al.
2015) [48].
Cultivation of Malabar spinach
Malabar spinach is a leafy vegetable, suitable for both home
and market garden in the lowland tropics (Siemonsma et al.
1994) [70]. This perennial plant is native to countries of
tropical Asia like India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and it can
be easily grown as an annual crop during the summer and as
ornamental foliage vine in gardens or park (Mahr, 2014) [41].
Cultivated lines: according to Malabar spinach – World
Vegetable Center
(a). VI047671-A1: Vigorous growth, high yielding, thick
green leaves with pink veins, Purple stems with short
internode length, and late flowering line.
(b.) VI047914: Vigorous growth, high yielding, thick dark
green leaves, Green stems with short internode length and
late-flowering line.
(c.) VI049472: Vigorous growth, Narrow, thin, light green
leaves, Light green, thin stems with long internode length and
early flowering line.
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(d.) VI051016: Vigorous growth, Narrow, thin, dark green
leaves with pink veins, dark purple stems with long internode
length and medium to the late flowering line.
Climatic requirement: Hot, sun-drenched climate is suitable
for cultivation of Malabar spinach. 70 to 75 % relative
humidity is needed for the cultivation and also humidity is
essential to inhibit flowering that causes bitterness in the
leaves. The plant growth is highest at the optimum
temperature 32ºC and as temperature drops to 26 ºC the
growth of plant slows down. Optimum 18-23 ºC temperature
is needed for seed germination. Direct sunlight and windproof
areas are ideal for the cultivation (Mahr, 2014) [41].
Soil: Malabar spinach can be grown easily under proper soil
and climate conditions (Palada et al 1999) [56]. Soil with high
organic matter content, moisture and suitable drainage system
is needed for cultivation. Optimum pH 6.5-6.8 is required for
root development (Mahr, 2014) [41].
Fertilizer requirement: Before planting application of 100
t./ha organic manure complement with 250 kg./ha 10:10:20
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Straw mulching is
useful particularly in the initial stages of development and
during dry periods to preserve water. (Acikgoz et al. 2018) [2].
For good quality leaf application of 10 to 20 t/ha welldecomposed cow manure (Palada et al 1999) [56].
Sowing and Spacing: Cultivation of Malabar spinach done
by both seed and seedling. A seed rate of 10-15 Kg requires
for the one-hectare area. Recommended spacing for
transplanted seedling is 100 cm between rows and 50 cm
between plants (Palada et al. 1999) [57]. Natural (straw,
sawdust, herbage and other materials) and synthetic
(polyethene in different colours) both materials are used for
mulching. These are well known for modifying the energy
and water balance at the surface of soils mulches creating
favourable conditions for plant growth by modifying soil
temperature (Farias-Larios et al., 1997) [19], decreasing the
moisture loss from the soil, suppress weed growth (Borosic, et
al., 1998) [9], control of soil-borne pathogens, and reduce
insect/pest populations (Farias-Larios et al. 1997) [19]. The
yield of a mulched plant is higher than the unmulched plant.
Silver plastic mulch gives the highest yield (Gonzaga et al
2014) [22].
Diseases: A total of 26 and 19 endophytic cultivable fungi
were isolated from B. alba and B. rubra respectively.
Majority of the endophytes belongs to the genus Alternaria
and several genera in class Dothideomycetes. Alternaria is
predominant in both the plants (Moutusi et al. 2019) [51].
Endophytic fungi can either complete or part of their life
cycle inside the host tissue and colonize either in intercellular
or intracellular spaces of leaves, stem, flowers, fruits, seeds
and roots. The host plants show higher nutrient uptake, get
immense resistance to herbivores, abiotic stresses (Mishra et
al. 2014) [47].
Leaf Blight of Basella alba Caused by Alternaria alternata
(Fr.) Keissler in India. In PDA media white to brown in
coloured fungal colonies are formed. The fungus produces
brown, short, simple, or sometimes branched conidiophores.
Conidia are obclavate, obpyriform or ellipsoidal with a short
conical beak with pale brown in colour. Conidia had three to
eight transverse septa with one to two longitudinal septa
(Sankar et al 2011) [64]. Leaf spot is elliptical to irregular oval,
yellow-brown to dark brown, and concentrically zonate with
diffuse margins frequently surrounded by light-coloured
haloes. Initially, the infection started from the leaf tips and
reached to leaf base at a later stage. In severe infections, spots
coalesce to cause necrosis, wilting, and ultimately death of
leaves (Sankar et al. 2011) [64].
In Malabar spinach, Leaf spot disease is caused by
Colletotrichum. This disease is more severe in B. rubra than
B. alba. Cercospora Basellae-albae produces necrotic spot on
leaves of Basella alba. This pathogen was first described from
Basella alba in India (Srivastava et al. 1994) [72] and was
reported recently in Thailand (Meeboon et al. 2007) [45],
Philippines (Begum et al. 2010) [7]. Necrotic spots appear on
both sides of young and mature leaves. Initially, spots are
circular to subcircular, 1– 10mm wide with reddish-brown in
colour. In a later stage, spots turn into black to brown in
colour with grey centres and reddish-purple borders.
Conidiophores are visible as minute black dots on the leaf
spots. Conidiophores are unbranched, pale olivaceous brown,
uniform in colour, straight or mildly geniculate with
thickened conidial scars and sparingly septate. Conidia are
hyaline, straight to slightly curved, indistinctly multiseptate,
acute at the apex, truncate at the base with a thickened hilum.
Crous and Braun (2003) [12] stated that Collatotrichum
Basellae-albae was similar to Collatotrichum apii s. lat. but
conidia of C. apii s. lat. is longer than C. Basellae- albae
while conidiophores of C. apii s. lat. has narrower than C.
Basellae-albae.
Yield: 1.5-2 kg fresh leaves are obtained per plant (Acikgoz
et al. 2018) [2]. For seed production, dry fruits are selected.
Total 1000-2000 kg/ha dry seed is obtained (Grubben et al.
2004) [23].
Importance
Use as an indicator: Fruit extract of Basella alba is used as a
natural indicator in acid-base titration to detect endpoint
because of the sharp colour of occurring with the change in
pH value. The original colour of the dye is violet and their pH
value is 4.9 (Mitra et al. 2015) [48]. Normally Synthetic
colourants used for acid-base titration are hazardous to human
beings and environment while natural indicators are
economical, simple, easily available and eco-friendly. (Mitra
et al. 2016) [49].
Medicinal uses: Natural foods have several health benefits
(Schmidt 1974) [66]. The risk of cardiovascular diseases,
stroke, and cancer can be reduced by adding fruit and
vegetable in the daily diet (Rice-Evans et al 2003) [62]. Basella
plant species contain betacyanin, carotenoids, bioflavonoids,
β-sitosterol and lupeol which are reported to have antioxidant,
antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activities
etc. and help in curing various diseases, namely anticancer,
antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cholesterol,
anti-ulcer, antimicrobial, anti-hypoglycemic, wound healing,
androgenic from the ancient times (Shade et al. 2017) [68]. In
Ayurveda Malabar spinach is called as “Upodika”, “Potaki”,
“Malvaa”, “Amritvallari”, and in Siddha/Tamil as
“Vaslakkirai” (Khare, 2004) [31].
Several different types of medicinal elements are found in the
Basella plant which helps in fighting many diseases such asa) Saponins phytochemicals have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, vasodilatory actions, and antioxidant effects
(Garcia et al. 2005) [20] and have the ability to fight
against cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Kumar et al.
2013) [34].
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b) Kaempferol, the flavonoid is protective against
cardiovascular diseases and cancer (Yang et al. 2008) [79].
c) Red stemmed Basella rubra plant have wound-healing
effect (Haneefa et al 2012) [24], antibacterial activity
(Oyewole et al 2012) [55] and antiviral activity (Dong et
al. 2012) [16], anti-inflammatory effect (Kumar et al.
2011) [38] and antiulcer effect (Venkatalakshmi et al
2012) [75].
d) Leaf juice is used in to treat catarrh (Nandkarni et al.
1908) [52].
e) Leaf juice also used as safe laxatives for children,
pregnant women and in the urinary diseased patient
(Mishra et al. 2006) [46].
f) Flowers are locally used as Antidote for poisons.
g) Plant extract caused an increase in the WBC count which
help in the management of anaemia and immunitydependent disorders (Sonkar et al. 2012) [71].
h) Plant leaves show amylase activity which helps in the
diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. (Sonkar et al. 2012) [71].
i) Boiled Basella alba is used to treat retained placenta in
the cow (Adekilekun et al. 2012) [4] because it develops
severe diarrhoea that causes the placenta to come out.
j) Leaves are also used as anthelmintic, demulcent, antiinflammatory, anti-malarial and analgesic (Yanadaiah et
al. 2011) [78].
Table 2: The nutritional content of Malabar spinach (Yang et al
2008 and USDA, 2018) [79]
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Nutrients
Water
Energy
Protein
Fat
Calcium
Phosphorus
Iron
Magnesium
Potassium
Sodium
Zinc
Vitamin A
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B3
Vitamin C
fiber, 0.7% fat, 250.0 mg./100g Ca, 4.0 mg./100g Fe. It also
contains 15.9 g./100g ash, 27.7 g./100g protein, 3.1 g./100g
fat, 42.1 g./100g carbohydrate, 306.7 kcal./100g energy, 400.0
mg./100g Vitamin C, 48.7 mg./100g Ca, 21.5 mg./100g Fe
and g./100g fiber (Maisuthisakul et al. 2008) [42].
Use in pest management: Basella rubra seeds contain two
types of antifungal peptides α and β basrubrins which are
effective against some important fungi like Botrytis cinerea,
Mycosphaerella arachidicola and Fusarium oxysporum
(Wang et al. 2001) [76]. Antiviral glycoprotein effective
against potato virus has been also found in Basella leaves.
Methanolic extract of leaves of B. alba contains two
glycosides flavenoids vitexin, and vitexin- 2″-Oarabinofuranoside which inhibit the growth of Spodoptera
litura. These flavonoid glycosides act as deterrents to S. litura
larvae (Aboshi et al. 2018) [1], green peach aphid, Myzus
persicae (Dreyer et al. 1981) [17]. 50% population of aphid
Myzus persicae is inhibited by 0.1% concentration of vitexin
(Dreyer et al. 1981) [17]. The concentration of vitexin and
vitexin-2″-O- arabinofuranoside glycosides flavenoid is
higher in younger leaves than mature leaves (Rhoades 1979)
[61]
. Basella plant also acts as a trap crop against whitefly.
Intercropping of celery and B. alba with cucumber reduced
whitefly on cucumber due to presence of Geranylnitrile which
reduces whitefly colonization (Zhao et al. 2014) [81].
Oil content in Malabar spinach: Malabar spinach oil can
work as very good vegetable oil (Adedotun 2004). Saturated
fatty acids like lauric acid, arachidic acid, behenic acid,
lignocenaric acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and myristic acid
while unsaturated fatty acids like oleic acid, eicosenoic acid,
palmatoleic acid, erucic acid, docosahexanaenoic acid,
arachidonic acid, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid are
present in the oil of both red and green species of Malabar
spinach. In the oil of red Malabar spinach total amount of
saturated and unsaturated fatty acid is about 22.19% and
50.7% respectively while in oil of green Malabar spinach oil
total amount of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid is about
21.41% and 52.36% respectively (Adedotun 2017) [3]. That's
why Malabar spinach oil can be used as a vegetable oil in
homes.
Quantity (per 100 g)
93g
19 kcal
1.8 g
0.3 g
109 mg
52 mg
1.2 g
65 mg
510 mg
24 mg
0.43 mg
8000 IU
0.05 mg
0.16 mg
0.50 mg
102 mg
Nutritional importance: Basella rubra is a good source of
calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C. Seed contain fatty oils
such as palmitic, oleic and linolenic acid (Annonymous,
2004). Carotenoids also found in the leaves of Basella rubra
with major beta-carotene, small amounts of alpha-carotene
and traces of other carotenoids (Panteado et al. 1987) [58].
This plant is good for health due to the presence of mineral,
protein, oil, carbohydrate, fibre, carotenoid, organic acid,
vitamins. According to Lyimo et al. 2003 [40], Malabar
spinach contains 98.7 mg./100g vitamin C, 5% protein, 1.5%
Use as a vegetable: Malabar spinach is used to make many
types of dishes in many countries like Philippines, Thailand
China, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka and many African
countries. In the Philippines, a vegetable dish called utan
which is cooked with sardines, onions, garlic, and parsley. In
Mangalorean Tuluva cuisine, a coconut-based gravy called
gassi is paired with the Basella plant, making a delicacy
called Basale gassi to be eaten with rice dumplings called
pundi soaked overnight in the gravy, or with red rice. Soup is
made in Chinese cuisine and Vietnam cuisine, Malabar
spinach is mixed with crab meat and jute (Grubben et al.
2004) [23].
Table 3: Malabar spinach dishes made in India (Wikipedia)
S. No.
State
Dishes
1.
West Bengal In the vegetable dish, cooked with red pumpkin, and in non- vegetarian dishes, cooked with the bones of the Ilish fish
2.
Karnataka
Basalede kunhi Pindi
3. Andhra Pradesh
curry of Basella and Yam were popularly known as Kanda Bachali Koora and snack item bachali koora bajji
4.
Odisha
Curries and Saaga
5.
Maharashtra
Daento or valchi bhaji
6.
Gujrat
Pakodas, popularly called "poi na bhajia".
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Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
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