Glutathione Maintaining Immune Function
The mercapto group on the cysteine glutathione active group (glutathione often abbreviated as G-SH), easy and certain drugs (such as paracetamol), a toxin (such as free radicals, iodoacetic acid, mustard, The combination of lead, mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals) has integrated detoxification. Therefore glutathione (especially liver cells, glutathione) can be involved in the biotransformation, and thus the machine body of harmful poisons into harmless substances, and excreted.
Glutathione also helps to maintain normal immune system function. Glutathione is widely present in animals and plants, has an important role in vivo. Glutathione also has a whitening effect, in recent years, many businessmen use glutathione as cosmetic raw material and added it to skincare products or cleansing supplies, or use it to make nutritional supplement tablets.
Excessive free radicals can damage biofilm in the body’s metabolism, invasion of macromolecules of life, accelerate the body ageing, and the generation of induced tumours or atherosclerosis. Glutathione plays an important role in the biochemical defence system of the human body and has a wide range of physiological functions. The main physiological role of glutathione: to rid the bodys free radicals, as an important antioxidant in the body, protecting sulfhydryl in many proteins and enzymes. GSH in a structure containing a reactive thiol group-SH, and susceptible to oxidative dehydrogenation, the specific structure to become the main body radical scavenger.
Glutathione can also improve the body’s immune system and protect the haemoglobin not subjected to the oxidation hydroxide radicals and other oxidation so that it continued to the normal functioning of the ability to transport oxygen; glutathione protects the enzyme molecule-SH groups, conducive to the activity of the enzyme, and can restore the function of the activity of the the-SH group has been damaged by the enzyme molecule, to resume the enzyme activity.
Glutathione can also inhibit ethanol against the fatty liver generated by the liver. Glutathione caused by radiation, radioactive drugs, leukopenia symptoms, there is a strong protective effect. And enter the body of toxic compounds, heavy metal ions or carcinogen glutathione and promote excreted, play a role in detoxification.
Currently, glutathione manufacturer has developed glutathione drugs and widely used in clinical, in addition, to use its sulfhydryl to combine with heavy metals, fluoride, mustard gas poisoning, also used in hepatitis, hemolytic diseases, as well as keratitis, cataracts and retinal diseases such as therapeutic or auxiliary therapeutic drugs. Scientists also pleasantly surprised to find that glutathione has the function to inhibit HIV. Add glutathione in food may serve to strengthen the foods nutrition; strengthen flavour; prevent deeper color; act as a stabilizing agent and so on.
Glutathione, ³-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycyl – glycine, a small peptides combined with three amino acids, glutathione plays an important role in vivo. Glutathione is the most abundant cell in small molecule thiols compounds, is an antioxidant to protect the enzymes and other proteins of the sulfur, is a major component of the intracellular non-protein sulfhydryl groups, participate in oxidation-reduction reaction within the cell, is a coenzyme of certain enzymes, and have the activation effect on some sulfhydryl enzyme.
More and more clinical science experiments show that the human body’s glutathione increasing is helpful to digestive, respiratory and metabolism. Many famous medical experts predict that: “glutathione will soon like cholesterol, become one of the indicators to measure human health.
Due to the important role of glutathione in intracellular, glutathione widely used in the field of medicine has been recognized for a long time, and increasingly being used in food additives, sports nutrition, health care products and cosmetic raw material.
The glutathione earliest started to develop by Japan in the 1990s, in 1999, use Japan raw materials to produce the injection reduced glutathione has appeared on the market in China. According to statistics, in 2002 glutathione in the Chinese market sales is $ 8.02 billion; the market sales glutathione in 2003 is 1.355 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 69.05%; Glutathione market in the first half of 2004 sales is $ 8.39 billion, an increase of 43.11% over the previous year. Simply in demand for several pharmaceutical companies, the monthly demand is estimated at 3 to 4 tons.
Glutathione pharmaceutical raw materials currently used by Chinese glutathione manufacturer all rely on imports, and its price is about 8000 ~ 9000 yuan / KG. China is currently lack of production capacity, also no production of raw materials for approval by the state. Although glutathione is widely used in food, medicine, cosmetics, etc., but its extract is extremely rare, so the price is very expensive, mainly used in the pharmaceutical industry.
Glutathione production methods have chemical synthesis, enzymatic conversion method, and a fermentation method. Currently, the chemical synthesis method and the extraction method has been industrialized, the enzymatic conversion method ongoing extensive research, not used for the industrial production of glutathione currently. The chemical synthesis method is applied to the production of glutathione earlier, but there is the disadvantage of the complex and time-consuming.
The biosynthetic methods include enzymatic conversion method and microbial fermentation, enzymatic conversion on producing glutathione due to the need to obtain the relevant enzymes, complex procedures, need to consume expensive ATP, need to design ATP regeneration system, also need to join the precursor amino acids, so that because of the high cost, the research is still in the experimental stage.
Microbial fermentation for the production of glutathione is currently the world’s major production methods, and avoid expensive ATP consumption, more economical and practical, glutathione international origin in Japan, use microbial fermentation to produce glutathione. In China glutathione research started late, now mainly in the campus of academic institutions, in the research stage, have not formed a certain scale of production.