WASHINGTON, June 19: Scientists claim to have discovered an ‘elusive’ anti-cholesterol formula from plants that could lead to dramatic reductions in human fat levels.
Scientist Daniel Perlman from the Brandeis University in Boston found a way to make phytosterol molecules from plants dispersible in beverages and foods, potentially opening the way to dramatic reductions in human cholesterol levels.
Phytosterols in plants and cholesterol molecules in animals are highly similar and when both are dispersed together they are attracted to one another, researchers said.
When they mix in the gut of an animal, the cholesterol molecules are competitively inhibited from passing into the blood stream and instead are excreted.
The ability of phytosterols to reduce cholesterol levels in animals has been recognised since the 1950s, but practical application of this knowledge was difficult because phytosterols are not naturally water-soluble, and they are only poorly soluble in fatty substances.
Perlman and KC Hayes, professor emeritus of biology and former director of the Foster Biomedical Research Laboratories, invented and patented a way to increase the bio-availability of phytosterols in fats than 10 years ago.
Improving dispersal of phytosterols in water has remained problematic, and was an obstacle to their general use in foods and beverages.
Now, Perlman has found a way to change the behaviour of phytosterols in liquids by forming a new complex in which glycerin molecules attach to phytosterol molecules.
Phytosterols and glycerin are heated together to a temperature at which the water molecule that usually attaches to each phytosterol molecule boils off and is replaced by a glycerin molecule.
Because glycerin molecules have multiple places at which water molecules can be attached and because glycerin also inhibits crystal growth that complicates dispersal, the phytosterol-glycerin complex together with an emulsifier becomes dispersible in water-based foods.
“I had been playing with ideas on how to enhance the dispersability of this molecule for a number of years,” said Perlman.
Hayes tested Perlman’s new compound in his laboratory for its effects on lipoprotein metabolism with excellent results in terms of its cholesterol-reducing action. (PTI)
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