Improvement of the digestibility of rare-sugars by nano-food-technology

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24650510
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Eating habits, studies on eating habits
• Research Institution: National Institute for Materials Science
• Principal Investigator: Shirai Yoko 国立研究開発法人物質・材料研究機構, 生体機能材料ユニット, 主幹エンジニア (10399404)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAMIMURA Wataru 東京大学, 医学部付属病院, 研究員 (80399394)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MATSUO Tatsuhiro 香川大学, 農学部, 教授 (20270019)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 希少糖 / DDS / 機能性食品

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Rare-sugars have various physiological activities such as the decrease of body fat accumulation, the decline in serum glucose level, and the elevation of serum insulin level. Because of the low digestion ratio and the disposition different from glucose, the availability of rare sugars is limited. In this study, we attempted to improve the blood threshold of rare sugars by means of drug-delivery techniques. In order to apply for functional food we chose several safe, easily available, and inexpensive carriers and prepared the complexes of them with rare sugars. We assessed the effects of chronic feeding of the rare-sugars -carrier-complexes for rats to obtain the basic data on the safety of the complexes as nutritional substrates. No difference was found between the control group and the complex-fed groups in body weight gain, food efficiency, and most serum chemical levels. These results suggest that the rare-sugars -carrier-complexes have no dietary toxicity for rats.

Free Research Field

栄養生化学