Positive Health Online

Abstract

BACHA and ANJUM, 1. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. 2. Department of Microbiology, University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan investigate whether yeast β-glucan is effective against  inflammatory and oxidative stress markers.

Background

β-Glucan is a dietary fibre, found in many natural sources, and controls chronic metabolic diseases effectively. However, β-glucan from the yeast has rarely been investigated.

Methodology

Objectively, conditions were optimized to isolate β-glucan from the yeast (max. 66% yield); those optimized conditions included 1.0 M NaOH, pH 7.0, and 90°C. The purity and identity of the isolated β-glucan were characterized through FT-IR, SEM, DSC, and physicofunctional properties.

Results

The obtained results from DSC revealed highly stable β-glucan (m.p., 125°C) with antioxidant activity (TAC value 0.240 ± 0.0021 µg/mg, H2O2 scavenging 38%), which has promising bile acid binding 40.463% and glucose control (in vitro). In line with these results, we evaluated the in vivo anti-inflammatory potential, that is, myeloperoxidase activity and reduction in MDA and NO; protective effect on proteins and keeping viscosity within normal range exhibited improvement. Also, the I cholesterol binding and reduction in the skin thickness by β-glucan were highly encouraging.

Conclusion

Finally, the authors’ results confirmed that yeast β-glucan is effective against some of the inflammatory and oxidative stress markers studied in this investigation. In general, the effect of 4%  β-glucan was more noticeable versus 2%  β-glucan. Therefore, our results support the utilization of β-glucan as a novel, economically cheap, and functional food ingredient.

References

Bacha U1, Nasir M1, Iqbal S1, Anjum AA2. Nutraceutical, Anti-Inflammatory, and Immune Modulatory Effects of β-Glucan Isolated from Yeast. Biomed Res Int. 2017. 8972678. doi: 10.1155/2017/8972678. Epub Aug 23 2017 .