Starch in food

Plants use water, carbon dioxide and energy from the sun to form simple sugars through a process called photosynthesis. When the sugar chains gather in large quantities inside a plant’s cells, they form starch grains, also called starch granules.

Starch is deposited in granules in almost all green plant and in various types of plant tissues and organs, e.g leaves, roots, shoots, fruits, grains and stems.

Grains are the riches food source of starch, providing much of the food energy for people all over the world. Starch may be produced from potatoes, rice, tapioca, or wheat by methods similar to corn, except that with potatoes and tapioca it is not necessary to degerm the product.

Starch is valuables because it can break down into simple sugars that provide human with sustained energy and keep them feeling full and satisfied.
Starch in food

Plant protein

Food proteins have an important nutritional role and are primarily used by the body to supply nitrogen and amino acids. Although complex proteins come from animal products many consumers get their proteins from plant sources,

Plants are able to synthesize proteins from inorganic sources of nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide assimilated by their roots and leaves.

In contrast animals and man are dependent on plant and animal proteins in the diet provide the necessary constituent for protein synthesis.

Corn plants

Plant proteins can be modified by chemical, enzymatic, or physical processes to meet the ingredient’s functional requirements. Source of plant proteins include grains such as corn and oats and oil-rich seeds such as soybeans and peanuts.

In grain crops, seeds are normally high in protein relative to other parts of the plants as harvested although on a global basis the latter may synthesize a greater total quantity of protein.

The properties of seed proteins may change during storage or with the method of seed drying.
Plant protein

Naturally occurring toxin

Natural constituents of foods from fungi, plants and occasionally animals may be hazardous under some circumstances of exposure.

Of course, some fungi, plants and animals should not be consumed as food because of their inherent hazards but are accidentally or intentionally consumed on occasion resulting in foodborne illness.

However, some naturally occurring toxins occur in plant products but are not toxic at concentrations normally consumed. Glycoalkaloids in specific potato cultivars are notable example.

Other examples include solanine and chaconine in potatoes, oxalates in spinach and rhubarb, furan compounds in mold-damaged sweet potatoes and cyanogenic glycosides in lima beans, cassava and many fruit pits.

Nutmeg contains myristin, a hallucinogen that is not toxic in small amounts but can cause death when take in excess. Thus, the children may be at risk where nutmegs are widely available as a cooking additive, or in the course so its use in traditional medicine of overdoes occurs.

A large number of naturally occurring compounds frequently found in foods appear to be mutagens and possible carcinogens. For example, of the 826 volatile compounds contained in coffee only 21 have been tested for chronic effects and 16 of them were found to be carcinogenic in rodents.
Naturally occurring toxin

Natural substances of plant sterols and plant stanols

Plant stanols and sterols, also known as phytosterols and phytosterols, are naturally occurring substances found in plant foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

The western diet provides about 100-300 mg/day of plant sterols and 20-50 mg/day of plant stanols. Plants sterols and stanols have been incorporated into various food products, including margarine and salad dressing.

Plants sterols such as sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol are structurally similiar. Stanols are saturated sterols without double bonds in the sterol ring structure.

The plant sterols mixtures typically used in supplements to reduce cholesterol levels are usually extracted from pine tree wood pulp or soybean oil.

Plant sterols are often hydrogenated forming stanols, and both sterols and stanols can be extracted to make them soluble in fats, forming stanol and sterol esters.  They have similar structure to cholesterol and therefore can be absorbed by the gut instead of cholesterol.

Plant sterols and stanols esters compete with dietary cholesterol for absorption via mixed micelles. They block dietary and biliary cholesterol absorption in the small intestine with subsequent reduction of serum cholesterol and LDL concentration.

Sterols lowered total cholesterol by 6-11% and LDL cholesterol by 7-15%. Stanols lowered total cholesterol by 4-10% and LDL cholesterol by 7-14%.
Natural substances of plant sterols and plant stanols

Natural substances of plant sterols

Sterols are an essential component of the membranes of all eukaryotic organisms. Their function appears to be to control membrane fluidity and permeability and in animals they are also precursors of hormones and bile acids.

They are commonly found in the daily diet. Plants sterols accumulate in the lipid fraction of seeds and fruit. Substantial amounts of the major sterols, sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol can also found in cereals including wheat.

The plant sterols mixtures typically used in supplements to reduce cholesterol levels are usually extracted from pine tree wood pulp or soybean oil.

Plants sterols have long been known to reduce serum total and LDL cholesterol levels when consumed in the diet by lowering the intestinal absorption of dietary and biliary cholesterol.

Plant sterols interfere with cholesterol absorption by decreasing the micellar solubility or cholesterol.

Apart from lowering the cholesterol level, another useful function of plant sterols is that they play a protective role of the prostate. Plant sterols can significantly improve the condition of prostate enlargement and is just as effective as fintasteride.
Natural substances of plant sterols