Protective effects of β-glucan isolated from highland barley on ethanol-induced gastric damage in rats and its benefits to mice gut conditions

Molecular Mechanism of Functional Ingredients in Barley to Combat Human Chronic Diseases

“…Gastrointestinal tract disease is a major global health problem. β-glucan in hulless barley has protective effects to the gastrointestinal tract (see Table 2) [122]. The dietary fiber in hulless barley improved indices of bowel health compared with refined cereal foods, especially Himalaya 292 possesses high amylose and resistant starch due to lacking activity of a key enzyme responsible for starch synthesis; however, consumption of Himalaya 292 foods resulted in 33% higher faecal weight, a lowering of faecal pH from 7.24 to 6.98, a 42% higher faecal concentration, a 91% higher excretion of butyrate, a 57% higher faecal total SCFA excretion, and a 33% lower faecal p-cresol concentration [123].…”

“…Gastroprotective effects. β-Glucan from hulless barley can mitigate the gastric lesions and gastric mucosal damage as well as gastric oxidative stress injury through decreasing the level of malondialdehyde [122]. The oral administration of fermented barley extract had strong gastroprotective effects through strengthening antioxidant defense system and anti-inflammatory effects, as well as decreasing lipid peroxidation and CAT activity by increasing the GSH levels and SOD activity in the body, and the 200 mg/kg dose of fermented barley extract was similar gastroprotective as the 10 mg/kg dose of omeprazole, which indicates that this dosage can be used for patients suffering from different levels of gastric damages [124].…”

“…β-Glucans can be used as candidates for the medication in the treatment of human chronic diseases [133]. β-Glucans have many bioactivities including antidiabetes; anticancer; antiobesity; anti-inflammation; immunomodulation; cardioprotection; lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure; improve bowel health, gastroprotection, and hepatoprotection; reduce chronic kidney disease and metabolic syndrome; prevent the risk of heart and cardiovascular diseases; and accelerate wound healing activities (Figure 1, Tables 2 and 3) [13,18,98,111,116,122,123,127,133,[143][144][145][146][147][148][149]. The major mechanisms of β-glucans of barley involve in the prevention of chronic diseases are as follows: β-glucans can interact with intestinal lipids and bile salt to reduce cholesterol levels and subsequently prevent diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome [143].…”

“…The hypocholesterolaemic effect of β-glucan in barley is due to the increased bile acid synthesis [148] and improved bowel health by inhibited feed intake and increased cecal fermentation [149]. Barley β-glucan not only has the gastroprotective effects by increasing the SOD and CAT activity, decreasing the gastric ulcer index, and increasing prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide in laboratory rodents [122] but also affects lipid metabolism and SCFA production, lowering microbes in patients with metabolic syndrome [127] and improving chronic kidney disease by reducing the microbial-derived uremic toxin. Chronic consumption of barley β-glucans can decrease fatty liver by increasing small intestinal contents viscosity and improving glucose, lower glycated hemoglobin and relative kidney weights [129], strengthen the angiogenic ability of ROS-exposed endothelial cells for preventive heart disease [123], and accelerate the wound closure by promoting the migration and proliferation of human dermal fibroblasts [133].…”

“…The major mechanisms of barley arabinoxylan for preventing chronic diseases are as follows: arabinoxylan can improve 21 urinary metabolites associated with diabetes by improvement of carbohydrate and lipid as well as amino acid metabolism [158]. The antioxidant and antiobesity as well as immunomodulation of arabinoxylans associated with prebiotic effects and short-chain fatty acids production by interaction of gut microbiota and arabinoxylans [122]. Arabinoxylan rice bran can increase anticancer effects in the older population by increased NK activity [159].…”