Hydrolyzed guar gum decreases postprandial blood glucose and glucose absorption in the rat small intestine.

We hypothesized that infusing partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG) into the duodenum would reduce increases in postprandial plasma glucose by decreasing the rate of glucose diffusion from the small intestine luminal digesta of the rat. The postprandial plasma glucose and apparent glucose disappearance from the small intestine were measured after infusing artificial digesta containing 0 (control), 3.0, or 6.0 g/L PHGG into the duodenum via a cannula under anesthesia in experiments 1 and 2. The diffusion of glucose in the artificial digesta was estimated using dialysis tubing, filled with the same artificial digesta, soaked in a buffer in experiment 3. In experiment 1, the plasma glucose concentration was lower in the digesta containing 3.0 and 6.0 g/L PHGG than in the control digesta at 120 minutes (P < .05). The plasma insulin concentration was lower for the digesta containing 6.0 g/L PHGG than for the control digesta at 60 minutes (P < .05) and lower for the digesta containing 6.0 g/L PHGG than for that containing 3.0 g/L PHGG at 120 minutes (P < .05).The area under the curve of plasma glucose and insulin (experiment 1), apparent disappearance of glucose in the lumen of the small intestine (experiment 2), and net disappearance of glucose in the dialysis tube depended negatively on the viscosity of the artificial digesta (P < .05, .05, .001, and .05), which was increased by adding PHGG. Therefore, PHGG can decrease the postprandial blood glucose by lowering the rate of absorption from the small intestine in the rat by reducing the diffusion of glucose in the lumen.

Chemical and physical properties, safety and application of partially hydrolized guar gum as dietary fiber.

The ideal water-soluble dietary fiber for the fiber-enrichment of foods must be very low in viscosity, tasteless, odorless, and should produce clear solutions in beverages. Partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG) produced from guar gum by enzymatic process has the same chemical structure with intact guar gum but less than one-tenth the original molecular length of guar gum, which make available to be used as film former, foam stabilizer and swelling agent. The viscosity of PHGG is about 10 mPa.s in 5% aqueous solution, whereas 1% solution of guar gum shows range from 2,000 to 3,000 mPa.s. In addition, PHGG is greatly stable against low pH, heat, acid and digestive enzyme. For these reasons, PHGG seems to be one of the most beneficial dietary fiber materials. It also showed that interesting physiological functions still fully exert the nutritional function of a dietary fiber. PHGG has, therefore, been used primarily for a nutritional purpose and became fully integrated food material without altering the rheology, taste, texture and color of final products. PHGG named as Benefiber(R) in USA has self-affirmation on GRAS status of standard grade PHGG. PHGG named as Sunfiber(R) is now being used in various beverages, food products and medicinal foods as a safe, natural and functional dietary fiber in all over the world.