New Way to Cleanse Your Body: Liquid Pectin for 'Green' Detox Rolled Out in Russia

Pectin is a natural thickener and a powerful detoxifier that can be found in the majority of fruits, mainly apples, citrus fruits, carrots, apricots, and berries. Essential for the treatment and prevention of many diseases, pectin in its pure form is rather difficult to produce.

The first-ever completely "green" industrial method to produce pectin, a natural toxin absorber, has been offered by Russian scientists from Dubna State University (DSU).

Pectin significantly reduces the risk of heart and vascular diseases, and helps the body to get rid of salts from heavy metals, radionuclides, excess cholesterol, and other harmful substances. Yet, it is hard to produce in a pure and stable form, with the stabilisation process also being demanding and wasteful. Additionally, acids used to extract pectin from fruit can destroy its macromolecular structure, severely compromising its ability to "absorb" toxins.

Apparently, not anymore, as a Russian scientific team managed to come up with a method that not only offers higher stability and a much stronger ability to absorb harmful substances than existing analogues on the market, but is also fully "green".

The active component of the pectin macromolecule is the carboxyl group of galacturonic acid. The food industry widely uses pectins that have more than half of their carboxyl groups "occupied" by chemical bonds. The new Russian technology is aimed at producing medical pectin that would have a majority of its carboxyl groups "free", as this would enable it to remove toxins more efficiently.

"By controlling pectin extraction processes at the cellular level and using innovative equipment made from chemically inactive materials, we managed to obtain a product of the highest quality from different types of fruit", Professor Raisa Gorshkova, the director of the "Physhimbiofarm" Research and Educational Centre at Dubna State University, said. "The process is based entirely on resource-saving and waste-free technology".

The scientists used different fruits because every kind of fruit can offer various types of pectin. For example, citrus pectin is useful for binding endotoxins, while apple pectin is better at binding heavy metal ions. But the new technology appears to erase the boundaries, as the method allows one to make hybrid pectin and combine their useful properties.

According to the researchers involved in the study, if one includes some 10-15 grams of such pectin, it can help reduce bilirubin and cholesterol levels, normalise blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Additionally, weight control may become much easier.

Gorshkova noted that obtaining liquid medical pectin has been a goal of many scientists around the world for years, but they only managed to receive an unstable product. For Dubna State University, some thirty years of research has appeared to pay off, with scientists now hoping their results "will help introduce this substance into the daily routine of patients with chronic, seasonal and oncological disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular and immune systems, with the overweight and acute allergic reactions".

"Of course, pectin should also be of interest to those who simply lead a healthy lifestyle, control their diet, and keep themselves fit", the professor stressed.

Now the research team plans to prepare the product for extended clinical use and market launch.