Assessment of Nano Cellulose from Peach Palm Residue as Potential Food Additive: Part II: Preliminary Studies

摘要

High consumption of dietary fibers in the diet is related to the reduction of the risk of non-transmitting of chronic diseases, prevention of the constipation etc. Rich diets in dietary fibers promote beneficial effects for the metabolism. Considering the above and recognizing the multifaceted advantages of nano materials, there have been many attempts in recent times to use the nano materials in the food sector including as food additive. However, whenever new product for human and animal consumption is developed, it has to be tested for their effectiveness regarding improvement in the health of consumers, safety aspects and side effects. However, before it is tried with human beings, normally such materials would be assessed through biological tests on a living organism to understand its effect on health condition of the consumer. Accordingly, based on the authors’ finding reported in a previous paper, this paper presents body weight, biochemical (glucose, cholesterol and lipid profile in blood, analysis of feces) and histological tests carried out with biomass based cellulose nano fibrils prepared by the authors for its possible use as food additive. Preliminary results of the study with mice have clearly brought out potential of these fibers for the said purpose.