Glyconutrients

Fibre from nopal cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) improves symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome in the short term: a pilot randomised-controlled trial - Volume 79 Issue OCE1

Abstract Aims Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and bacterial sepsis are distinct conditions, both are known to trigger endothelial dysfunction with corresponding microcirculatory impairment. The purpose […]

Recognizing the composition and modulation of the microbiome, a viable therapeutic tool for multi-targeted therapy is a new strategy that has recently been explored. Glucosamine (GS) is being studied for its prebiotic potential in addition to being the most abundant and naturally occurring amino monosaccharide. The current study focuses on glucosamine’s prebiotic potential by assessing the stability of various GS concentrations (1% - 5%) in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and its ability to be fermented by the gut microbiota. The results showed that GS stimulated the most growth in L. acidophilus even after a longer incubation time than B. bifidum and L. acidophilus growth was concentration-dependent, with maximum growth at 3% with a simultaneous decrease in pH (5.6 - 1.7). The decrease in GS concentration with time also represented the growth of bacterial species, demonstrating the species’ utilization of GS. Furthermore, at 3%, GS also represented the prebiotic index of 1.9. In addition, the concentration of GS in various simulated GIT fluids was estimated in both fast and fed conditions to examine GS stability at various levels in the gut. The results showed that GS remained unaffected and non-digestible in all of the simulated GIT fluids (salivary, gastric, intestinal, and colonic), but there was a slight decrease in GS concentration (2.8%) in the fasted state of gastric fluid due to low pH levels (1.6). As a result, the findings are conclusive and suggest that GS possesses prebiotic properties.

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

(NaturalHealth365) Did you know that seaweed offers many health benefits? Discover how this superfood helps prevent cancer.

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.