Article on Phaseolamin
Phaseolamin 2250® : New, Standardized Starch Neutralizer Evolves From Nearly 60 Years of Research
For Immediate Release
Feb 4 , 2002
By: Dennis Meiss, Ph.D.
Specific inhibitors of animal alpha amylases (the enzyme that helps turn starch to sugar) were discovered in plants, particularly wheat and beans, as early as the 1940's. Interest in such inhibitors developed because controlled reduction of starch digestion theoretically could improve carbohydrate tolerance in pre-insulin diabetics and aid in weight control.
However, it was not until the early 1970's that the first research was conducted on wheat and beans to determine the specific starch-neutralizing ability of these plants. In 1973, an amylase inhibitor from wheat was reported to decrease post-prandial (post meal) plasma glucose rise in response to raw wheat starch.
In 1974, J. John Marshal and Carmen M. Lauda purified a proteinaceous inhibitor of alpha-amylase from kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), which they named Phaseolamin™ and concluded it was a specific alpha amylase inhibitor. Based on that early research, a number of crude bean amylase inhibitor preparations where commercially marketed in 1980 as weight control remedies.
The early remedies were marketed as starch blockers and claimed to reduce starch digestion by inhibiting intraluminal amylase activity. Numerous clinical studies, however, failed to show that the amylase inhibitors reduced starch digestion in humans. Consequently, the FDA suspended sales of the products in 1982.
MAYO CLINIC STUDIES
According to an article by Mayo Clinic Researchers in 1985, the "clinical studies of these commercial amylase inhibitors, given with a starch meal, failed to influence fecal calorie excretion; postprandial concentrations of plasma glucose or breath hydrogen; and metabolism of C-labeled starch."
Following the FDA ruling, the Mayo clinic launched a study to determine why the commercial preparations were ineffective in vivo in spite of their any-amylase activity in vitro. The results of their study, "Partially Purified White Bean Amylase Inhibitor Reduces Starch Digestion In Vitro and Inactivates Intraduodenal Amylase in Humans," concluded that "commercial amylase inhibitors failed to decrease starch digestion in vivo mainly because they have insufficient anti-amylase activity."
The Mayo Clinic researchers also found that a partially purified inhibitor, prepared by simple extraction of crude bean powder, has much more specific anti-amylase and less agglutinating activity compared with commercial preparations. They further concluded that "a partially purified inhibitor, with increased specific activity, is a stable in human gastrointestinal secretions, slows dietary starch digestion in vitro, rapidly inactivates amylase in the human intestinal lumen, and, at acceptable oral doses, may decrease intralumnial digestion of starch in humans." Based in this positive research, a number of companies began to re-examine use of amylase inhibitors for reducing starch digestion in diabetics and for weight control. Following the enactment of DSHEA in 1994, new commercial weight reduction products were introduced - but with more modest claims.
NEW PRODUCT CONTAINS STANDARDIZED EXTRACT
Pharmachem Laboratories, a major U.S. supplier of nutritional supplement ingredients based in Kearney, N.J., recently introduced Phaseolamin 2250® - the first standardized, all-natural, non-stimulant starch neutralizer extracted from a portion of the white kedney bean.
Phaseolamin 2250® is similar to the extract studied by the Mayo Clinic. In an independent in vitro test by Lycoming Laboratories using a modified USP test method, Phaseolamin 2250® neutralized 2,250 starch calories - the equivalent of more than one pound of spaghetti.
Few, if any, side effects have been observed from Phaseolamin 2250® , even at high doses. It is manufactured in the U.S. from a non-GMO plant source, is all-natural and contains no stimulants.
THE LATEST RESEARCH ON Phaseolamin™
Pharmachem Laboratories recently completed two human studies involving Phaseolamin 2250® : An in vivo effectiveness of a starch absorption blocker in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over, pilot study with normal human subjects; and a human study on weight loss associated with a starch neutralizer.
In the first study, starch absorption averaged 57 percent lover in the group taking Phaseolamin 2250® , compared to the group on placebo. "This indicates very little of the glucose from the starch in the bread was absorbed when co-ingested with Phaseolamin 2250® , and the glucose was cleared very rapidly," daid researcher Joseph A. Vinson, Ph.D., University of Scranton. The study included 10 subjects (five males and five females). After an overnight fast, the participants were sampled for blood and given in a random fashion either a placebo consisting of four slices of white bread (60 g carbohydrate), 42 g soybean oil margarine and 4 g Sweet N' Low spread on the bread, or the placebo plus 1.5 g Phaseolamin 2250® . Plasma glucose was measured from blood drawn at baseline and every 30 minutes for four hours.
The second study involved 60 human volunteers (both males and females) ranging from ages 20 to 45. They were selected based on being anywhere from 5 to 15kg overweight for at least 6 months. Participants in the 30-day, double-blind study lost an average of 6.45 lbs. When they consumed Phaseolamin 2250® . Participants on the placebo lost less than one pound, on average. In addition, participants on Phaseolamin 2250® lost 10.45 percent of fat body mass, 1.39 percent in hip circumference, 1.44 percent in thigh circumference and 3.44 percent in waist circumference. These losses were experienced without any loss of lean body mass.
Based on the results of these two recent human studies, Phaseolamin 2250® appears to be a safe, non-stimulant carbohydrate control mechanism that may play a useful role in weight control.
Dennis Meiss, Ph.D., is president of Applied Nutrition Research Inc., Pleasanton, California and spokesperson for Pharmachem Labs.
Reprinted with permission of Health Products Business Magazine.
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