Glucans bioactivity

Novel foods include those providing protein (soy and dairy), and those that are intended to improve cardiovascular health (stanol esters, P-glucan, bioactive peptides, and n-3 fatty acids), bone and joint health (calcium, glucosamine, and chondroitin), eye health (lutein), the immune system (milkmicronutrients, lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, and colostrum), gut health (probiotics and prebiotics), body fitness (conjugated linoleic acid, amino acids, and glyco-macropeptide), energy level, and for beauty. 

Glucan structural unit is the other factor which has major influence on the bioactivities of polysaccharides. Mostly, glucan is the basic structural unit of polysaccharides extracted from plants [113]. The literature strongly indicates that the antitumor and antiviral properties of polysaccharides isolated from medicinal plants/mushrooms associate with their glucan structures [114]. For example, len-tinan from Lentinula edodes, schizophyllan from Schizophyllum commune, which have been used for extensive anticancer treatment and also in many clinical trials, contain glucan units in their mam-chain structures [115,116],... 

It is important to note here that the DB determines the tertiary structure of polysaccharides, which is a crucial factor that has dramatic effect on their bioactivities. For example, schizophyllan and lentinan have triple helical con-formers formed by (1 —> 3)-p-glucans, which were demonstrated to be necessary for antitumor effects [108]. 

Esua, M. F. and Rauwald, J. 2006. Novel bioactive maloyl glucans from Aloe vera gel isolation, stmcture elucidation and in vitro bioassays. Carbohydrate Research, 341 (3),... 

Chitin is a (l->4)-linked 2-acetoamido-2-deoxy-g-D-glucan, and chitosan is its N-deacetylated product. These polysaccharides are naturally abundant and are present in the cuticles of insects and in the cell walls of plant pathogens, absent in the higher plant kingdom. Chitin and chitosan are (a) natural, (b) biocompatible, (c) almost nontoxic, (d) biodegradable, and (e) bioactive polymers. Our interest in these polymers is two-fold. (1) the molecular design of chitin and chitosan by chemical modification (Figure 1) in view of (a) the inversion of their molecular conformation, 3 (b) the development of their potential molecular... 

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