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Cereal β‐glucan: a promising prebiotic polysaccharide and its impact on the gut health
Author(s) -
Shoukat Mahtab,
Sorrentino Angela
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/ijfs.14971
Subject(s) - prebiotic , nutraceutical , functional food , gut flora , polysaccharide , immune system , glucan , beta glucan , food science , antioxidant , intestinal permeability , biology , chemistry , biochemistry , immunology
Summary Recently, polysaccharides dietary fibres have emerged as promised functional and nutraceutical food ingredients due to their several health boosting properties. Cereal β‐glucan is a water‐soluble, prebiotic and bioactive polysaccharide dietary fibre that has a tendency to play a significant role in health regulation. β‐glucans from cereal sources have a number of unique functional properties, that is higher solubility, viscosity and tendency to completely be fermented by gut microbiota. These functional characteristics show promising positive effects on human health, such as cancer prevention, anti‐inflammatory activity, skin protection, antioxidant, immune modulation and reduction of glycaemia and serum cholesterol. The present review primarily focuses on the prophylactic and therapeutic role of cereal β‐glucans on gut health in terms of its barrier permeability, modulation of gut microbiota, the intestinal immune system and intestinal inflammation, colon cancer protection and short‐chain fatty acids production. Cereal β‐glucans principally perform different biological actions through specific cytokines and hormones regulation.