Antioxidative activity of animal and vegetable dietary fibers

Abstract

Some dietary fibers originated from insects such as silkworm (Sericin) and others along with constituents of several representative seaweeds such as wakame Undaria pinnatifida; hijiki Hizikia fusifome; and kombu Laminaria japonica, were found to have fairly large reaction rates determined by quenching experiments of emission spectra in the near-infrared region lambdamax 1270 nm for singlet oxygen 1O2, Cypridina luminescence method for superoxide, and peroxide value (POV) for autoxidation. The determined reaction rates are between 10(3)-10(5) (g/L)(-1) s(-1) for the insect and the plant dietary fibers; the larger ones are as large as that of ascorbic acid, 1.93 x 10(4) (g/L)(-1) s(-1) for singlet oxygen. Most of these seaweed constituents also showed antioxidative activity against autoxidation and superoxide as well as their immunological enhancing activity. These results suggest a possibility that dietary fibers that are supposed to prevent the large-intestine cancer by their physical properties may prevent the cancer, at least in parts, by their chemical, antioxidative activity.

Pattern of dietary fiber intake among the Japanese general population

“…Michel et al (1996) reported that the characteristic fermentation pattern associated with the fiber from the three brown algae they investigated was attributable to the peculiar fermentation of alginates, and mannuronate was shown not to be directly involved. As for the relationship of seaweed consumption to carcinogenesis, several reports have shown preventive effects of seaweeds against colorectal carcinogenesis in epidemiological studies (Tokudome et al, 1991;Hoshiyama et al, 1993), or in experimental studies in rats (Yamamoto and Maruyama, 1985;Teas et al, 1998); proposed mechanisms for such effects include inhibition of reactive oxygen species (Maruyama et al, 2003;Suzuki et al, 2004), or the modulation of natural killer cell activity (Teas, 1983). Furthermore, there are several reports regarding the preventive effect of seaweed consumption against breast cancer (Teas, 1983;Kang et al, 2004).…”

Biopolymeric Nanoparticles

“…Sericin nanoparticles, apart from the general advantages of protein nanoparticles, may also offer certain other benefits of the inherent property of sericin. Those include antioxidant [84][85][86][87] and antitumor action [88]; enhancement of the bioavailability of such elements as Zn, Mg, Fe, and Ca [89]; as well as suppression of coagulation when sulfated [90]. Sericin is non-toxic to fibroblast cells.…”

Effect of centrifugation on the structure and properties of silk sericin

“…Specifically, sericin is highly resistant to oxidation (Suzuki et al, 2004), is UV resistant (Sarovart et al, 2003), and has a moisturizing effect on skin (Padamwar et al, 2005). In addition, Tsubouchi et al (2005) reported that sericin improves the attachment of cultured human skin fibroblasts.…”