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Transcript

Welcome back. Let us start with the 2nd lecture of this week. That is about the phytochemicals, phytosterols and dietary fibers. Now do you know what is the role of the phenolic compound to prevent the oxidative stress. I think you are aware that free radicals are harmful to us. And generally free radicals are the part of life. We can’t avoid them. And I think you know that how much oxygen we need. A normal healthy human being consumes approximately 3.5 kg oxygen daily and the full oxygen amount can’t be reduced. Then what happened. It will lead to the formation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species; that is ROS. And both are harmful.

So this reactive oxygen species, such as super-oxide, hydroxyl radical, peroxyl radical and alkoxy radical as well as hydrogen and other peroxides, they are harmful and phenolic compounds, they neutralize the effect and prevent the oxidative stress. Then come to phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are also important for the prevention, delaying the anti-carcinogenic effects. Let’s see how phytochemicals have the

• anti-oxidant effect.
• Also affect the cell differentiation.
• Increase the activity of enzymes and helps in detoxification.
• Effect on DNA methylation.
• Maintenance of DNA repair.
• Increase the apoptosis of cancer cells, that is death of the cancer cells
• And decrease in cell proliferation.

So by creating all these factors, these phytochemicals helps in prevention or delay the occurrence of the cancer.

Now phytosterols. Phytosterols are also important plant equivalent of cholesterol in animals. And the most common bioactive phytosterols are beta-sitosterols, campesterol and stigmasterol. And the saturated derivatives of plant sterols are plant stanols such as sitostanols. Now come to the dietary fibers. We have discussed about dietary fibers earlier also. And dietary fibers importance is well known in our diet and proved also. The long fibrous structure of the dietary fibers, that is the long chain of carbohydrates; they allow to entrap the harmful toxins and carcinogens; the cancer causing particles in the digestive tract. And if the dietary fibers they entrap the harmful toxins and carcinogens, which further leads to the production of cancer. So here they are liberated, they are entrapped and thrown out and provide the anti-carcinogenic effects.

Then what is the role of polyphenols in low density lipoprotein cholesterol oxidation. These polyphenols, they have positive effect on prevention of low density lipoproteins, that is LDL cholesterol oxidation. It may be exerted by a free radical scavenging mechanism. And this will leadsto the oxidation of cholesterol. And it will cause the formation of plaque in the arteries. And due to the formation of the plaque in the arteries, there will be a blockage in the arteries. So polyphenols here plays very important role, and prevent the low density lipoprotein oxidation.

Now let us discuss a case study. This is about role of fish oils in rheumatoid arthritis. That is a very serious disease. What happened in rheumatoid arthritis? There is an inflammation in the joints and the patient suffers a lot, with the lot of pain and stiffness in the joints. Robert in 2005 conducted a clinical trial on the fish oil with the patients of rheumatoid arthritis and the group has been given fish oil supplementation 130 milligram per kg body weight. That is a fixed amount is mentioned 130 milligram per kg of the body weight each day. And what he reported that there was a decrease in number of stiff joints, duration of the morning stiffness, because morning stiffness is the main symptom we can say of this rheumatoid arthritis. The patients feel stiffness for a period of 30 or 45 minutes and movement becomes very difficult and pain also.

Now there is another case study. And in this case study the effect of special carbohydrate-protein bar. It is a bar and tomato juice. Their effects has been studied on the oxidative stress, and vascular endothelial dynamics in ultra marathon runners. Let’s see what happened. This study was conducted and the bar was given, which have whey proteins and carbohydrates. Whey proteins and carbohydrates in a specific ratio; 1:1 ratio to the ultra marathon runners for a period of 2 months. And 16 peoples have been given either whey and 15 has been given tomato juice also, that is commercially available. We can see that administration of these 2 products to the runners for 2 month period, improve their oxidation state. While the tomato juice, both are improving like they as well as the tomato juice, they both are improving the oxidation state. But in addition to the oxidation state, the tomato juice also improve their vascular endothelial functions also.

So how important is phytochemicals, polyphenols and dietary fibers are in our life. That we have gone through in this lecture.

Thank You.