Effective inhibition of starch digestion in vivo may diminish glucose formation and absorption by the small intestine and increase the amount of undigested starch reaching the colon. The enzyme involved in the digestion of starch, alpha-amylase, has been identified and crystallized several years ago. Controversy exists as to whether effective inhibition can decrease starch digestion sufficiently to result in weight loss. The objective of this project is (a) to isolate and characterize alpha-amylase inhibitors from Phaseolus species (b) to synthesize and characterize known inhibitors in an effort to understand their mechanism of action. / The supernatant from ground beans was subjected to reverse phase chromatography. The separated peaks were lyophilized and assayed for alpha-amylase inhibitory activity. The inhibitor with the highest activity (peak 6) was repurified and fully characterized. It was exposed to physiological amounts of endoproteases to check its stability. / A known inhibitor of alpha-amylase was synthesized and studied. Its binding constant has not been previously reported. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.24006 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Gibbs, Bernard F. |
| Contributors | Alli, I. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001538787, proquestno: MM19815, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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