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What are pectins?

Pectins are substances of plant origin with the properties of aqueous sorbents and mucous substances. By their chemical structure, pectins are classified as polysaccharides and gelling natural polymers.

A unique feature of pectins is their ability, in contact with water, to absorb it like a sponge, increasing its own volume, but upon reaching a certain degree of saturation, start the dissolution process in the presence of residual aqueous solution.

Pectins are structural components of plants responsible for maintaining the elasticity of plant cells (turgor). It is the pectins that are responsible for the "juiciness" of the leaves, stems and fruits of the plant.

For human health, pectins are valuable as substances that can easily move through the digestive tract and absorb toxic components that are not utilized by the body. It is for this reason that pectin substances are useful in nutrition. Moving along the digestive tract, pectins absorb water, toxins, and increasing many times in size, provoke intestinal motility, thus removing digestive waste. By themselves, pectins are not assimilated by the human body.

Pectins are especially useful for people with a history of diseases such as gastritis, duodenitis, stomach or intestinal ulcers, colitis, enterocolitis, constipation, functional disorders of intestinal motility.

Plant food rich in pectins plays the role of a gentle diet for various injuries and irritations of the gastrointestinal mucosa. The gelling ability of pectins in contact with liquids allows coarse dietary fiber to envelop and move it along the gastrointestinal tract without the risk of irritation. The largest amount of pectins is found in "fleshy" fruits and vegetables: plums, apples, citrus fruits, physalis fruits, quince, peaches, apricots, grapes, pineapple, kiwi, cherries, cherries, watermelons, melons, tomatoes, beets, aquatic plants – algae.

Pectins, useful substances in nutrition, are helpers for people with obesity problems. Swelling and filling the lumens of the gastrointestinal tract, pectins create conditions that imitate satiety - the fullness of the stomach and intestines.

Since pectins, from the point of view of chemical compounds, have many unbound acid residues (carboxyl groups) in their molecules, they are able to attach other substances to such residues, thus forming complexes. This property of pectins is widely used to bind and remove radionuclides (radioactive substances) and heavy metal molecules from the body . For this reason, pectins are recommended to be used as a preventive food for people working in polluted environmental conditions. The possibility of adsorption of toxins of pathogenic microorganisms by pectins in infectious diseases makes products containing pectins a necessary condition for a therapeutic diet.

In the food and pharmaceutical industries, pectins are used, like agar, as a thickener in the production of jelly, marmalade, gels, capsule cases. In cosmetology, pectin casings are used as wrapping agents.