Nutraceutical, Anti-Inflammatory, and Immune Modulatory Effects of<i>β</i>-Glucan Isolated from<i>Yeast</i>

Abstract

<i>β</i>-Glucan is a dietary fibre, found in many natural sources, and controls chronic metabolic diseases effectively. However, <i>β</i>-glucan from the <i>yeast</i> has rarely been investigated. Objectively, conditions were optimized to isolate <i>β</i>-glucan from the yeast (max. 66% yield); those optimized conditions included 1.0 M NaOH, pH 7.0, and 90°C. The purity and identity of the isolated <i>β</i>-glucan were characterized through FT-IR, SEM, DSC, and physicofunctional properties. The obtained results from DSC revealed highly stable <i>β</i>-glucan (m.p., 125°C) with antioxidant activity (TAC value 0.240 ± 0.0021 <i>µ</i>g/mg, H₂O₂ scavenging 38%), which has promising bile acid binding 40.463% and glucose control (in vitro). In line with these results, we evaluated the in vivo anti-inflammatory potential, that is, myeloperoxidase activity and reduction in MDA and NO; protective effect on proteins and keeping viscosity within normal range exhibited improvement. Also, the in vivo cholesterol binding and reduction in the skin thickness by <i>β</i>-glucan were highly encouraging. Finally, our results confirmed that yeast <i>β</i>-glucan is effective against some of the inflammatory and oxidative stress markers studied in this investigation. In general, the effect of 4% <i>β</i>-glucan was more noticeable versus 2% <i>β</i>-glucan. Therefore, our results support the utilization of <i>β</i>-glucan as a novel, economically cheap, and functional food ingredient.