Glyconutrients

Gum Arabic (Acacia Senegal) Augmented Total Antioxidant Capacity and Reduced C-Reactive Protein among Haemodialysis Patients in Phase II Trial

Acacia senegal (Linn) Wild a member of Mimosaceae is a small tree of 3-6m in height with umbrella-shaped crown. It is a typical tree of Sahel in Africa from Senegal to red sea and essentially limited to the area between 110 and 160 North, with a wide range of rainfall 100 to 800mm. It spread widely in tropical Africa from Mozambique, Zambia to Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria, and in South Asia in India and Pakistan. In India it is a typical tree of arid regions with a low rainfall of 100-250mm. It is drought resistant and tolerates prolonged dry period of 10-11 months, with maximum temperature reaching 500C with strong winds, but susceptible to frost. It occurs mostly on sand stones and skeletal soils and widely distributed as interspersed species in most of the rangelands and grasslands in arid and semi-arid regions of India. World’s 90% gum Arabic is produced from Acacia senegal. The quality of gum is very superior as compared to gum from any other species of Acacia (Andreson, 1990). Nearly 90% of gum Arabic is produced by Republic of Sudan especially from (Kordafan). Production of gum Arabic is meagre in India, and contribution to the world production is negligible. The total annual output of gum Arabic is only 800 Mt compared to world production and consumption of 60,000-70,000 Mt. The domestic production is insufficient even for domestic consumption and more of it is imported from Sudan and Nigeria to meet India's requirements. Gum exudes from cracks in bark of trees, mostly in the dry season. In Sudan the annual yields from young trees ranges from 188 to 2856 g (av. 0.9 kg), and from older trees, 379 to 6754 g (av. 2.0 kg). In India, however, the productivity is low varying from 175 to 550g tree-1 year-1. The main gum producing regions of India where natural as well as planted stands of A. senegal occur are in desert and arid region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab. The gum yield from various Acacia trees in their natural habitat is very poor. In arid and semi-arid region of India, particularly in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Bundelkahand, there is a good scope for extending area for large- scale plantation for production of gum Arabic. The area covered under forest, barren and uncultivable, pasture, oren (temple lands) and community grazing land etc, can be used for

Background Aloe vera is a perennial, succulent, drought-resistant plant that exhibits many pharmacological characteristics such as wound healing ability against skin burns, anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-viral, anti-hypercholesterolemic, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-asthmatic and much more. Despite great medicinal worth, little genomic information is available on Aloe vera. This study is an initiative to explore the full-scale functional genomics of Aloe vera by generating whole transcriptome sequence database, using Illumina HiSeq technology and its progressive annotation specifically with respect to the metabolic specificity of the plant. Results Transcriptome sequencing of root and leaf tissue of Aloe vera was performed using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. De novo assembly of high quality paired-end reads, resulted into 1,61,733 and 2,21,792 transcripts with mean length of 709 and 714 nucleotides for root and leaf respectively. The non-redundant transcripts were clustered using CD-HIT-EST, yielding a total of 1,13,063 and 1,41,310 unigenes for root and leaf respectively. A total of 6114 and 6527 CDS for root and leaf tissue were enriched into 24 different biological pathway categories using KEGG pathway database. DGE profile prepared by calculating FPKM values was analyzed for differential expression of specific gene encoding enzymes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Sixteen putative genes related to saponin, lignin, anthraquinone, and carotenoid biosynthesis were selected for quantitative expression by real-time PCR. DGE as well as qRT PCR expression analysis represented up-regulation of secondary metabolic genes in root as compared to leaf. Furthermore maximum number of genes was found to be up-regulated after the induction of methyl jasmonate, which stipulates the association of secondary metabolite synthesis with the plant’s defense mechanism during stress. Various transcription factors including bHLH, NAC, MYB were identified by searching predicted CDS against PlantTFdb. Conclusions This is the first transcriptome database of Aloe vera and can be potentially utilized to characterize the genes involved in the biosynthesis of important secondary metabolites, metabolic regulation, signal transduction mechanism, understanding function of a particular gene in the biology and physiology of plant of this species as well as other species of Aloe genus.

Background Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of Years Lived with Disability worldwide.1 The number of people suffering from LBP grew more than 50% from 1990 to 2013, to 651 million.1 Chronic low back pain can often lead to depression. Data on 1 90 593 community-dwelling adults aged ≥18 years from the World Health Survey (WHS) 2002–2004 in 43 Low and middle-income countries show a strong correlation between chronic back pain and depression.2 Glucosamine-chondroitin sulfate (GCS) combination is widely used in the treatment of OA; however, there are few prospective scientific investigations of its therapeutic merits in severe LBP. Objectives To study the efficacy of GCS in the decreasing depression in patients with chronic low back pain in a large open pilot prospective observational study. Methods We enrolled patients between 40 and 65 years of age who had LBP for at least 12 weeks with a pain intensity >3 on a 0–10-point visual analogue scale (VAS) in a single-arm, open-label prospective interventional study. Major exclusion criteria were the presence of fibromyalgia, degenerative spondylolisthesis, and alcohol and/or drug abuse. All patients were treated with a combination of glucosamine hydrochloride 500 mg and chondroitin sulfate 500 mg in tablet form (Unipharm Inc.) at a dose of 1 tablet bid for the first month and then 1 tablet daily for the next two months. The primary endpoint was pain intensity (at rest and movement) as measured on a 0–10 point VAS. Depression was measured by the 13-questionnaire Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). There are 13 questions in this score with highest possible score of 39 (5–7 is mild depression; 8–15 moderate depression, 16 and over severe depression).3 Results A total of 8598 subjects (mean age 52.1 years, 67.3% women, mean BMI 27.4) were enrolled in the study, and formed the intent-to-treat (ITT) population. All but 95 subjects (1.1%) completed the study. Previously-reported ITT analysis with worst observation carried forward (WOCF) showed an improvement in pain at rest from mean (±SD) of 5.2±1.9 at study entry to 1.4±1.6 at 3 months (p

A randomized double‑blind placebo‑controlled clinical study was conducted to evaluate the chondroprotective action of glucosamine on healthy subjects (soccer players) without joint disorders. Collegiate soccer players (n=43) without joint disorders were randomly assigned to receive a glucosamine (2 g/day)‑containing supplement (n=22, glucosamine group) or a placebo (n=21, placebo group) for 16 weeks, and cartilage metabolism was evaluated by analyzing markers for type II collagen degradation urine C‑terminal telopeptide‑II (CTX‑II) and serum collagen type II cleavage (C2C) and synthesis urine C-terminal type II procollagen peptide (CPII). In the initial analysis of all subjects, urine CTX‑II level substantially decreased in the glucosamine group, but not in the placebo group after the intervention for 16 weeks (P=0.05). Moreover, CTX‑II level in the glucosamine group was also significantly lower than that in the placebo group at week 16 during the intervention. In the second analysis, to make the effect of the test supplement more clear, 41 subjects with less variation of exercise loading were evaluated. The results revealed that urine CTX‑II level significantly decreased in the glucosamine group (n=21), but not in the placebo group (n=20) after the intervention (P

On Nov. 1, 2018, GlycoNet held a panel discussion, Why Sugars Matter in Fighting Disease, at the Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Research Innovation in Edmonton, Alberta. The panel discussion was MC'd by author and former Daily Planet host Jay Ingram. Panel members included: Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s Chief Science Advisor; Dr. Todd Lowary, Scientific Director, GlycoNet; Dr. Lori West, Professor, University of Alberta and Director, Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program (CNTRP); Dr. David Vocadlo, Professor, Simon Fraser University; Dr. Karla Williams, Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia and Co-founder of GlyCa BioSciences and; Ms. Erum Razvi, PhD candidate, The Hospital for Sick Children.