Researchers from the National Polytechnic Institute discovered that mangoes and green bananas work as dietary fiber and their action is directly related to colon cancer prevention . This finding was possible thanks to the study they made about the properties of Resistant Starch (RS) coming from non-conventional sources.
The research, made in the Center for Biotic Products Development (CEPROBI) , was in charge of doctor Luis Arturo Bello Pérez . “Starch is the main polysaccharide that, when it is completely disorganized by cooking, gets hydrolyzed by digestive enzymes until it becomes glucose, which increases the content of this carbohydrate in the blood,” explained Bello Pérez .
Bello Pérez, who is also in charge of the Macromolecules Structural Analysis Laboratory of CEPROBI stated that there is a vast amount of cereals, especially corn , wheat , and rice , as well as some roots and tubers , like potato, yucca, sweet potato, and taro, from which are extracted the starches used in food industry.
“In this research center, this macromolecule was obtained from mango and banana with incipient states of maturity , which contains a bigger amount of Resistant Starch,” he added.
Bello Pérez asserted that “on its resistant phase, starch has physiological properties such as regulating cholesterol in the blood and supplying the required calories for diabetics without exceeding blood sugar , but mainly, protecting the cells covering the colon, by arriving directly to the large intestine , as a by-product of digestion, it is fermented by microbiota produced by butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid, directly linked to colon care."
Butyrate is an acid that has anti-inflammatory properties and supplies cells covering the colon with enough energy to generate a protective effect. Lastly, doctor Bello Pérez highlighted the importance of mango and green banana as sources of starch and dietary fiber production, for which he considers necessary to evaluate their processing, storage, and production methods, which would allow the obtention of higher quality final products in sensory, nutritional, and functional level.
Last year, 15,000 cases of cancer of colon were diagnosed in Mexico, half of which end in the patient’s death.
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