Polyphenol-enriched soybean flour shows blood sugar benefits
Consumption of defatted soybean flour impregnated with Concord grape juice was associated with reduced blood sugar levels in diabetic mice, according to findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“The blood glucose lowering effect was also an indirect demonstration that grape polyphenols sorbed to defatted soybean flourare bioavailable,” report researchers from Rutgers University, North Carolina State University, and Nutrasorb LLC.
“These data suggest that grape polyphenol-enriched DSF may provide a novel ingredient for the creation of nutritious, low-sugar, and high-protein food ingredients useful for the dietary management of diabetes or metabolic syndrome.”
Nutrasorb
As reported by NutraIngredients-USA in October, the Nutrasorb bioactive sorption technology works by impregnating soybean flour with antioxidant-rich berry or fruit extracts.
Rutgers University researchers published their findings in Food Chemistry (doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.09.103) that indicated that 1.4 grams of blueberry-impregnated defatted soybean flour provides the same polyphenol content as 73 grams of fresh blueberries.
Similarly, 1 gram of the cranberry-impregnated defatted soybean flour has the equivalent polyphenol content as three 8 ounce glasses of cranberry juice.
Study details
The new study expanded the technology to sorb Concord grape juice onto the defatted soybean flour. Results showed that 1 gram of grape juice-impregnated defatted soybean flour contained up to 10.4 mg of anthocyanins, between up to 93.1 mg of proanthocyanidins, and up to 144.5 mg of total polyphenols.
“[Chemical] analysis of grape juice samples before and after addition and removal of defatted soybean flour and eluate from grape polyphenol-enriched defatted soybean flour confirmed that a broad range of grape compounds were sorbed to the defatted soybean flour matrix,” said the researchers.
The grape juice-impregnated flour was then tested in diabetic lab mice, and “the data indicate that grape polyphenol-enriched defatted soybean flour preserves the antidiabetic activities of grape anthocyanins and other polyphenols”.
Commercialization
During a presentation of some of his group’s findings at SupplySide West 2011 in Las Vegas, Nutrasorb’s chief scientist Dr Ilya Raskin explained that the team is working with industrial partners to further develop the Nutrasorb technology.
Dr Bertold Fridlender, president and CEO of Nutrasorb, said that the company’s “transformational and proprietary Nutrasorb technology” is currently being evaluated by “many of the most innovative companies in the food, supplement, cosmetics and medical food industries as a delivery vehicle for naturally concentrated bioactive compounds from fruit and other plant materials”.
One such company was recently revealed to be Milne Fruit Products.
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1021/jf300232h
“Biochemical Analysis and in Vivo Hypoglycemic Activity of a Grape Polyphenol–Soybean Flour Complex”
Authors: D.E. Roopchand, P. Kuhn, A. Poulev, A. Oren, M.A. Lila, B. Fridlender, I. Raskin
