I. Characteristics and Functions of Glutathione Glutathione (GSH) is a tripeptide compound formed by the condensation of glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine through peptide bonds. It is a widely used active short peptide with a molecular weight of 307.33 and a melting point of 189 ~ 193℃. It is a colorless, transparent, slender and granular crystal. GSH is widely found in baker's yeast, wheat germ, animal liver, chicken blood, pig blood, tomato, pineapple and cucumber, among which the content of wheat germ and animal liver is the highest, as high as100 ~1000 mg/100g.
Glutathione is soluble in water, dilute ethanol, liquid ammonia and dimethylformamide, but insoluble in ethanol, ether and acetone. It is stable in solid state, and the aqueous solution is easily oxidized to oxidized glutathione (GSSH) in air.
Glutathione has antioxidant, free radical scavenging, detoxification, immune enhancement, anti-aging, anti-cancer and anti-radiation effects. It is an important functional factor and widely used in food industry and pharmaceutical industry.
Oxidation inhibitor
GSH contains active sulfhydryl -SH, which can reduce H2O2 produced by human cell metabolism to H2O and scavenge free radicals in human body. Free radicals can damage the cell membrane, promote the aging of the body, and induce tumors or arteriosclerosis. GSH has anti-peroxidation effect on human cells, and can also improve the anti-oxidation ability of skin and make skin shiny.
Glutathione has the function of eliminating the formation of oxidized lipid, resisting the oxidation of oil, and preventing the nucleotide with peculiar smell in food (fish cake, sausage, soy sauce, etc.). ) from decomposition, lose the fresh flavor. In addition, it can also enhance the flavor of food and greatly extend the shelf life of food.
Glutathione, an anti-browning agent, has the functions of preventing pigmentation, preventing skin aging and pigmentation and reducing melanin formation. Adding glutathione to canned fruit can prevent fruit browning; Adding it to dairy products can effectively prevent enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning.
Glutathione additive, a quality improver for pasta, can shorten the kneading time of dough, and even after kneading and thawing for a certain period of time, it will not affect fermentation, thus producing bread with good quality. Glutathione also has the function of strengthening amino acid nutrition.
Glutathione, deamination, sodium L- glutamate, xylose and other meat flavor enhancers will produce very good beef flavor when stored and heated. When mixed with odorous nucleotides such as inosine monophosphate, guanosine monophosphate and sodium glutamate, it will produce a strong meat flavor. Can be used as flavoring agent and flavor agent for various processed foods. Glutathione added to meat products, cheese and other foods can also enhance flavor.
antidote
GSH has a broad-spectrum detoxification effect, can combine with toxic compounds such as acrylonitrile, fluoride, carbon monoxide, heavy metal ions or carcinogens, and promote their excretion, and can be used to treat the poisoning of the above substances.
The latest research on antiallergic drugs shows that GSH can treat the allergy caused by the imbalance of acetylcholine and cholinesterase in human body and has antiallergic effect.
Liver protectant
Reduced glutathione can protect liver and inhibit the formation of fatty liver. It can be used not only as a liver protection agent, but also as a feed additive, which has a liver protection effect on fish and cattle. Fish and cows often have liver dysfunction due to over-stocking and unclean feed. Glutathione can improve liver function.
Protect white blood cells
GSH can prevent leukopenia caused by radiation, radiopharmaceuticals or antineoplastic drugs, and can be used as adjuvant therapy for tumor radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Glutathione's broad-spectrum physiological functions make it widely used in food, especially as a base material, nutritional supplements, additives and so on. It has the functions of anti-aging, enhancing immunity and anti-tumor in food, and its development and application prospects are broad.
Production method of glutathione 1 According to Japanese patent reports, wheat germ has high glutathione content and can be extracted. The production process is as follows:
Wheat germ → degreasing → pulping → filtration → organic solvent → phase separation → desolvation → clarification and deproteinization → concentration → decoloration → spray drying → finished product.
The organic solvent can be organic acid solution, enol, ester and their mixture. The extraction of high-purity glutathione needs refining, and chromatographic separation or membrane separation can be used.
2. Synthesis of glutathione by cyanobacteria: Research and development of producing glutathione by using hot spring cyanobacteria in Shimane University, Japan. Cyanophyta can produce GSH in cells through photosynthesis, which is photofermentation. Cyanophyta cells are produced in the body after illumination.
ADP-ATP-ADP energy cycle, the energy generated makes glutathione synthase in cells produce glutathione, which is released to the outside of cells to obtain products. Japan also adopts the method of extracting GSH from green algae after culture.
3. Extraction from Glutathione-containing Yeast This method is to cultivate high glutathione yeast by fermentation, and then extract and refine it to get the product.