A review of pears (Pyrus spp.), ancient functional food for modern times.
BMC Complement Med Ther
; 21(1): 219, 2021 Sep 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1383623
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Pears have been world-widely used as a sweet and nutritious food and a folk medicine for more than two millennia.METHODS:
We conducted a review from ancient literatures to current reports to extract evidence-based functions of pears.RESULTS:
We found that pears have many active compounds, e.g., flavonoids, triterpenoids, and phenolic acids including arbutin, chlorogenic acid, malaxinic acid, etc. Most of researchers agree that the beneficial compounds are concentrated in the peels. From various in vitro, in vivo, and human studies, the medicinal functions of pears can be summarized as anti-diabetic,-obese, -hyperlipidemic, -inflammatory, -mutagenic, and -carcinogenic effects, detoxification of xenobiotics, respiratory and cardio-protective effects, and skin whitening effects. Therefore, pears seem to be even effective for prevention from Covid-19 or PM2.5 among high susceptible people with multiple underlying diseases.CONCLUSION:
For the current or post Covid-19 era, pears have potential for functional food or medicine for both of communicable and non-communicable disease.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pyrus
/
Functional Food
/
Phytochemicals
/
Fruit
Topics:
Long Covid
/
Traditional medicine
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Complement Med Ther
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12906-021-03392-1
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