As we know, glucan containing β-1, 3-glycosidic bond (β -glucan for short) has good functions, especially immune regulation, which has been proved by numerous studies and is now widely used in food, skincare products, health care products and medicine. In the last article we introduced What is β -glucan and the Benefits of β -glucan. Today we will continue to introduce the application of β -glucan. If you are interested, please read on
The pharmaceutical industry
Adding β -glucan to drugs can assist in the treatment of tumors, lowering blood pressure and blood lipids; Beta-glucan is said to enhance the body’s immunity, mediate endocrine anti-aging, and inhibit the production of free radicals. A large number of experiments have shown that β -glucan can promote the production of IgM antibodies in vivo to improve the immunity of body fluids. In addition, β -glucan can still clear free radicals, resist radiation, dissolve cholesterol, prevent hyperlipidemia and resist the infection caused by viruses, fungus, bacteria and so on.
Studies have found that β -glucan can play a core role in the genetic material of life activities, can control cell division and differentiation, regulate cell growth, in the treatment of tumors, hepatitis, cardiovascular, diabetes, hypidemia, anti-aging and other aspects have unique biological activities. In addition, β -glucan has excellent cellular immunity and promotes wound healing. It has a significant anti-inflammatory effect on skin wounds, can improve the healing function of damaged skin and accelerate wound healing.
Cosmetic industry
Most of the products used in the cosmetics industry are bio-fermented β -glucan, whose main function is sunscreen and anti-aging. The use of beta-glucan boosts the function of the body’s immune system by activating macrophages such as Lang’s cells. Activated Langsworth cells promote the proliferation of fibroblasts (skin cells) and the synthesis of skin tissue substrates such as collagen, elastin, proteoglycan, and other components, increasing skin elasticity. Yeast β -glucan is also used in sunscreen products, eye and facial anti-aging products, moisturizing products, trauma care products and anti-allergy products.
Breeding industry
β -glucan can be used as an immunoactive substance to improve the immunity of animals instead of antibiotics by stimulating immune cells to resist the invasion of pathogenic bacteria. At present yeast β -glucan is widely used in pet food, animal feed, aquaculture and other fields, especially in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea and other developed countries.
Immune stimulants can enhance the immune function of animals, improve the resistance to environmental stress factors and pathogenic factors, reduce the occurrence of diseases, is an effective way to solve aquatic animal diseases. Immune stimulant refers to the use of alone or at the same time with antigen, can enhance the body’s immune response of the substance, it can not only improve the rabbit epidemic function of aquatic animals but also have an anti-stress effect can be used as an adjuvant to enhance the specific immune function induced by the vaccine and antiviral effect. The immune polysaccharides used in aquatic animals are glucan, lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan. Among them, β -glucan is the most widely studied immunological polysaccharide.
For aquatic animals, β-1, 3-D-glucan, as a bioactive substance with immune stimulation, significantly affects the growth performance and physiological function of aquatic animals, can promote the growth performance of fish and shrimp, enhance the immune and antioxidant function, and anti-infection and detoxification ability. At present, the mainstream view is that β -glucan can be recognized by cell receptors, bind and activate the relevant immune system, induce a series of immune reactions, so as to destroy or eliminate pathogens, improve the level of immune-related enzymes and other factors to enhance the immune function of the body. Because the aquatic animal immune system is not perfect, especially the crustacean immune system is relatively low, mainly to play the role of non-specific immunity.
The food industry
β -glucan can be used in foods, beverages, and dietary supplements, including water, tea drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and other functional drinks, such as solid drinks, mostly oat β -glucan. It has a fat taste and can be used as a food additive in food flavoring, flour products, dairy products, sausage, ham sausage and so on.
Yogurt with oatmeal beta-glucan was found to be smoother and more creamy. Oat β -glucan is a kind of sticky polysaccharide, which can increase the viscosity of yogurt. Yogurt contains a large number of probiotics beneficial to intestinal health and the overall environment is acidic, but the properties of oat β -glucan in yogurt are stable, and the contents of water retention and viscosity have little change during the shelf life. Oat β -glucan can also be used as a fermentation substrate for probiotics such as bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria. In recent years, yeast dextran has also been used as dietary fiber.
