JP2007097572A - Functional food for amelioration of bowel movement - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a functional food for amelioration of bowel movement ameliorating the bowel movement without adverse effect such as belly-ache, etc., free from habituation, imparting an expected effect whenever necessary. <P>SOLUTION: The functional food for amelioration of bowel movement of the invention comprises forskolin which is an extract from Coleus forskohlli, and saponin. The new effect of amelioration on bowel movement which is not obtained from independent use of the forskolin and saponin, is obtained by the synergism of both forskolin and saponin. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a functional food that improves bowel movements.

Conventionally, anthraquinones such as sennoside, which is a component of senna, and emodin, which is a component of aloe, have been used to improve bowel movement.
The above-mentioned anthraquinones have a function of contracting smooth muscle, and are thought to enhance peristaltic movement of the large intestine.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-180884

However, since the above-mentioned anthraquinones act directly on the smooth muscles to contract the smooth muscles, the action is too strong for some people, and there may be unpleasant side effects such as abdominal pain when used.
In addition, when such anthraquinones are absorbed from the intestinal wall and reach the uterus, they also act on the uterine smooth muscle, and there is a risk of miscarriage.
Furthermore, while the intestinal contraction due to stimulation of anthraquinones was repeated, smooth muscles became accustomed to the stimulation, and the effect could not be achieved unless the intake of anthraquinones was increased. As described above, anthraquinones are addictive, and there is a problem that the effectiveness is weakened when they are used repeatedly. In addition, addictive here means that an effect will not come out by repeated ingestion.
The objective of this invention is providing the foodstuff which can improve a bowel movement without a side effect and habit.

The functional food of the first invention is characterized in that it contains forskolin and saponin.
The functional food of the second invention is characterized in that approximately equal amounts of forskolin and saponin are mixed.
The substantially equal amount includes a range around 5: 5, for example, 4: 6 to 6: 4.

The functional food of the present invention has no side effects such as abdominal pain and can improve bowel movements.
In addition, unlike anthraquinones conventionally used, there is less concern about contracting the uterus, so it can be used for pregnant women.
In addition, since it is not addictive, if you take it when you need it, you can always get the same effect.

The functional food having the effect of improving bowel movement of the present invention contains forskolin and saponin as its active ingredients.
The forskolin is a component contained in an extract from the root of the Labiatae plant Coleus forskori.

Then, a test was conducted to confirm that bowel movement was improved by simultaneous intake of the forskolin and saponin.
(Test 1)
As one embodiment of the present invention, forskolin powder containing forskolin and soy saponin powder were encapsulated to produce a capsule-like food, and this was used for testing.

And the said forskolin powder and the soybean saponin powder used what was produced | generated by the following procedures.
In order to produce forskolin powder, forskolin extract was extracted from the roots of Coleus forskori, a Labiatae plant, by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. The presence of forskolin and its related compounds is confirmed by thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography in this extract.
And since the said forskori extract is liquid, the excipient | filler was added to this and the forskolin powder was produced | generated by spray-drying. The forskolin powder had a forskolin content of 10%.

Moreover, the soybean saponin powder used in this embodiment is produced as follows.
First, a soybean extract extracted with ethanol from soybean germ is concentrated and then adsorbed onto a hydrophobic resin column. Thereafter, the adsorbate was extracted from the column with ethanol, and the extract was dried under reduced pressure to be powdered to obtain soybean saponin powder. This soybean saponin powder has a saponin content of 80% or more.

The forskolin powder and soy saponin powder produced as described above were sealed in 200 (mg), and a total of 400 (mg) was enclosed in one capsule, and this capsule was given to three subjects.
The above-mentioned mixture of equal amounts of forskolin and saponin will be referred to as “cholespon D”.
The subject took the capsule of the above-mentioned Correspon D, which is a food product of the present invention, one capsule at a time in the morning and evening over a period of 14 days with a normal meal in a normal life.
During the 14-day test, the body weight and the body fat percentage were measured, and each subject was told about other physical conditions.

(Result of Test 1)
During the 14-day study as described above, there was almost no change in body weight and body fat percentage in any of the subjects.
However, in all three people, the bowel movement became very good from the day after the start of the intake of the capsule food, and the so-called comfortable state continued throughout the test period. Moreover, there were no unpleasant side effects such as abdominal pain for 14 days.
Then, when the intake of the capsule food was finished after the test schedule was completed, all subjects returned to the bowel movement before the test on the second day after the final intake.

(Test 2)
On a different occasion from Test 1, the same test as Test 1 was performed on 23 subjects other than the three subjects.
In other words, 23 subjects ingested the food of the present invention prepared in the same manner as in Test 1 for 14 days each in the morning and evening over a period of 14 days in a normal life.
During the 14-day test, the body weight and the body fat percentage were measured, and each subject was told about other physical conditions.

(Result of Test 2)
Also in this test 2, there was almost no change in body weight and body fat percentage in any of the subjects during the test.
On the other hand, the result of hearing about the bowel movement from the day after the start of intake of the capsule food is shown in FIG.
Of the 23, 19 had good bowel movements, so-called stool conditions continued throughout the study, and none of the subjects became worse. Moreover, none of the subjects had any unpleasant side effects such as abdominal pain for 14 days.
And when the ingestion of the capsule-like food is finished, the same result as in the test 1 is that the next day after that, the state returned to the bowel movement before the test.

(Test 3)
Moreover, the test similar to the said test 1 and 2 was continued for one subject for 3 weeks.
(Result of test 3)
The subject had improved bowel movements from the day after the capsule was ingested, and further improved bowel movements over the course of two or three weeks, and confirmed that skin troubles were reduced.

As described above, there was an improvement in bowel movement from the day after the intake of the capsule food, and the day after the end of the intake, the original state was restored. It is clear that the effect is due to the form of the capsule-like food.
Moreover, although 20 out of 27 subjects in the above test have improved bowel movements, 20 out of 27 people have a high rate of about 74%. In the case of normal functional foods, etc., the effect of the food of the present invention is epoch-making because it is considered to be an effective food if the target effect is exhibited at 30% or more. I understand that there is.

In addition, there has been no report on the effect of improving bowel movements as described above for either forskolin or soybean saponin. Therefore, it is considered that the bowel movement improving effect as described above is a physiological action newly generated by the synergistic action of forskolin and soybean saponin.
The reason why the bowel movement has been improved as described above is estimated as follows.
When forskolin is taken into the body of an animal as a food, an effect of activating adenylate cyclase (c-AMP synthase) in the cell is recognized. It is known that when adenylate cyclase is activated, as a result, c-AMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) increases, thereby activating intracellular metabolism.

In the intestinal wall that has absorbed such forskolin, it can be expected that c-AMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) increases, intracellular metabolism is activated, and intestinal function is activated.
If the function of the intestines is activated, it can be expected that the peristalsis will become active, but the action of forskolin, like anthraquinones, acts to contract intestinal smooth muscle and the mechanism of its action Is different. Therefore, it is thought that the increase in c-AMP resulted in a state in which the intestine normally functions rather than the peristalsis being activated by vigorous contraction of smooth muscle. Thus, the fact that forskolin of the food of this embodiment does not cause intestinal contraction, in this test, all subjects did not feel discomfort such as abdominal pain during the test. I can guess from that.

In addition, soy saponin is well known to have an effect of improving lipid metabolism and liver function. The mechanism of the action is attributed to the high binding property between soy saponin and bile, and the soy saponin is considered to work to assist cholesterol excretion by binding with the bile.
By ingesting such soybean saponin, cholesterol is easily excreted as feces. That is, it is considered that stool having a higher lipid content than usual is formed.

Thus, it is considered that stool with a high lipid content has good slippage in the intestine, and can pass through the intestine more smoothly in combination with normal intestinal activity due to an increase in c-AMP.
For the reasons described above, it can be assumed that bowel movement was improved by the food of this embodiment containing the forskolin and soybean saponin.

In addition, the action of forskolin contained in the food of the above embodiment on the intestine is due to an increase in c-AMP as described above, and is a stimulus such as muscle contraction by conventional anthraquinones. The mechanism of action is different. Therefore, unlike anthraquinones, it is considered that there is no habituation that the feeling is paralyzed by repeated use.
Since the above test was conducted only for a maximum of 3 weeks, it is not always possible to confirm whether or not it is actually addictive. However, since the action mechanism of forskolin is different from the above-mentioned anthraquinones, it can be expected that the addictiveness is low.
Also, soy saponins are not very addictive because they function by combining with bile when they enter the body.
In any case, since the functional food for improving bowel movement of this embodiment has almost no habituation, even if it is used for many years, its effect will not be reduced. An improvement effect can be expected.

Furthermore, unlike anthraquinones, forskolin does not have the effect of contracting smooth muscles, so there is no risk of contracting the uterus, so the risk of miscarriage is low even when used for pregnant women.
This time, we have not conducted any experiments to confirm how forskolin and soy saponin affect pregnant women. For this reason, it is not necessarily certain whether there is an effect other than the contraction of the uterine muscle.
However, forskolin is less permeable from the intestinal wall than the above-mentioned anthraquinones, so it is very unlikely that forskolin absorbed from the intestinal wall will reach the uterus and act on the uterus. Therefore, it can be said that there is almost no worry that the functional food of this embodiment has a bad influence on pregnant women.

In addition, the degree of smooth muscle contraction by the anthraquinones increases as the amount of intake increases, but varies depending on the person, such as the state of the intestine of the ingestor and the history of ingestion of anthraquinone. Therefore, when the same amount is ingested, the effect of improving bowel movement varies from person to person. In other words, if you do not adjust the intake by people, too much will cause diarrhea or abdominal pain.
On the other hand, forskolin has a function of activating adenylate cyclase to increase c-AMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) to activate cells, but this c-AMP is originally present in a large amount. Where there is a tendency to suppress the increase. Therefore, in any case, the normal state is brought close to the activated state, and the same effect can be obtained even if the intake amount is not strictly managed by a person.

  In the above experimental examples, soybean saponin extracted from soybean is used as saponin. However, saponin is not limited to soybean, but may be the same even if extracted from plants other than soybean, such as yucca, kiraya, and tea. The effect can be expected. However, in recent years, soy isoflavone has attracted attention, and soy saponin is produced as a by-product in the process of industrially extracting isoflavone from soybean. Therefore, if soy saponin is used as a by-product, the production cost of the functional food of the present invention can be kept low.

It is a table | surface which shows the test result of the test 2 which confirms the effect of the functional food of invention.

Claims (2)

  Functional food for improving bowel movement containing forskolin and saponin.   The functional food for improving bowel movement according to claim 1, wherein forskolin and saponin are mixed in substantially equal amounts.

Images