Functional polysaccharides of carob fruit: a review
Bao-Jie Zhu1, Mohamed Zaky Zayed1,2, Hua-Xu Zhu3
1State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao, 999078 China.
Abstract:
Polysaccharides in carob fruit, including carob bean gum (also known as carob gum, locust bean gum) and carob fiber, are widely used in industries such as food, pharmaceuticals, paper, textile, oil well drilling and cosmetics. Carob bean gum is a galactomannan obtained from the seed endosperm of carob tree and the fiber is obtained by removing most of soluble carbohydrates in carob pulp by water extraction. Both the gum and fiber are beneficial to health for many diseases such as diabetes, bowel movements, heart disease and colon cancer. This article reviewed the composition, properties, food applications and health benefits of polysaccharides from carob fruit.
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