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Purple seaweeds have been prevalent within the diets of Asian communities for 1000’s of years. In a brand new research, revealed in Marine Medication, researchers have proven how these algae confer well being advantages.
“Up to now, folks have questioned why the variety of colon most cancers sufferers in Japan is the bottom on this planet,” stated Yong-Su Jin (CABBI/BSD/MME), a professor of meals microbiology. “Many assumed that it was attributable to some facet of the Japanese food regimen or way of life. We wished to ask whether or not their seaweed food regimen was linked to the decrease frequency of colon most cancers.”
Though a number of research have proven that Asians who eat seaweed often have decrease threat of colon, colorectal, and breast most cancers, it was unclear which element was liable for the anti-cancer results.
Within the research, the researchers broke down the construction of various kinds of pink seaweed utilizing enzymes and examined the sugars that have been produced to see which certainly one of them prompted well being advantages. Among the many six completely different sugars produced, agarotriose and three,6-anhydro-L-galactose, or AHG, confirmed probably the most promise.
“After we produced these sugars, we examined their prebiotic exercise utilizing the micro organism Bifidobacterium longum ssp. infantis,” stated Eun Ju Yun, a former postdoctoral researcher on the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. B. infantis is a probiotic bacterium; it colonizes the intestine of infants and supplies well being advantages. Among the many seaweed-derived sugars, the micro organism may solely devour agarotriose, indicating that it really works as a prebiotic i.e., it improves the expansion of probiotic micro organism.
“We additionally examined one other pressure, B. kashiwanohense, and located that it additionally consumed agarotriose,” Jin stated. “These outcomes present us that once we eat pink seaweed, it will get damaged down within the intestine and releases these sugars which function meals for the probiotic micro organism. It may assist clarify why Japanese populations are more healthy in comparison with others.”
The researchers additionally examined the sugars to see if that they had any anti-cancer exercise. “We discovered that AHG particularly inhibits the expansion of human colon most cancers cells and doesn’t have an effect on the expansion of regular cells,” Yun stated. The anti-cancer exercise of AHG is because of its skill to set off apoptosis or cell demise.
“There’s plenty of data on how pink seaweeds are degraded by microorganisms within the ocean and within the human physique,” stated Kyoung Heon Kim, a professor of biotechnology and the co-advisor on the paper. “Our work explains why pink seaweeds are useful by offering the molecular mechanism. We’ll proceed learning their perform in animal fashions and hopefully we will use them as a therapeutic agent sooner or later.”
Story Supply:
Materials offered by Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Authentic written by Ananya Sen. Notice: Content material could also be edited for fashion and size.
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