What is phlorizin used for?
What Is Phlorizin?
Phlorizin mainly exists in the root bark, stem, young leaves and apple fruit of apple trees, and also exists in small amounts in plants such as Asteraceae, Ericaceae, Leguminosae, Fagaceae and Liliaceae.
Phlorizin is a phenolic substance in apple trees. Studies have shown that phlorizin accounts for 95% of the total phenolic content in apple trees. Its content is so high that its existence can affect the overall existence of classified substances.
Phlorizin is a glycoside formed by the combination of phlorizin and glycoside as glucoside. The glycoside is hydrolyzed to form glucose, which belongs to the dihydrochalcone substance in flavonoids. In addition, due to its high content, it is considered by many scholars to be a storage form of carbohydrates.
What Are The Functions Of Phlorizin?
1. Hypoglycemic effect
Diabetes is a major disease that threatens human health. The typical symptom of diabetes is high blood sugar. At present, the main drugs for the treatment of diabetes are traditional sulfonylureas, biguanides and some new hypoglycemic drugs such as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone. Most of their mechanisms of action are to promote insulin secretion or increase insulin sensitivity. A large number of existing studies have shown that phlorizin has the effect of lowering fasting blood sugar. The mechanism of phlorizin lowering blood sugar is to competitively inhibit the transport of glucose molecules by glucose transporters (SGLTs and GLUTs).
2.Antioxidant effect
The use of phlorizin in facial products can inhibit the formation of melanin and reduce the color of tea brown, gray spots and freckles.
3.Physiological relevance with plants
Phorizin is closely related to physiological phenomena such as plant growth and development and stress resistance. It can resist a variety of pathogens, such as apple black spot and fire blight. However, it will inhibit the growth of some plants. Low concentrations of phlorizin can promote the growth of Pingyi sweet tea seedlings, but too high a concentration will cause obstacles to plant continuous cropping. Phlorizin can promote papaya embryo regeneration, especially root growth. Therefore, when it is used as a plant growth regulator, its dosage is a key consideration.
4.Improve memory ability
Phorizin inhibits blood sugar from entering the brain. Therefore, the mechanism by which phlorizin enhances the brain's memory ability is obviously independent of blood sugar levels or the brain's ability to absorb sugar.
What Is The Application Of Phlorizin?
1. Food
Phorridin has been approved as a food additive. It is a characteristic phenolic substance in apples. Due to the variety and origin of apples, the content of phloridzin in different apples varies greatly. Therefore, its content can be used as an indicator to distinguish the origin and quality of apple juice. Phloridzin can promote the absorption and utilization of Genistein. It is a natural sweetener with very high sweetness and can be used as a sugar substitute for diabetic patients who love sweets. The product generated by its oxidation by polyphenol oxidase can be converted into a bright yellow dye. This dye has strong water solubility and can be used in the food processing industry to replace artificial dyes and avoid the toxic effects of artificial synthetic pigments. It has potential application value both as a food additive and in the development and utilization of functional foods.
2.Medicine
Because phloridzin is easily hydrolyzed in the human body to form phloridzin, and the absorption rate of phloridzin in the small intestine is low, phloridzin is often designed with other compounds into high molecular polymers for drug research and development.
3.Cosmetics
The antioxidant activity and anti-aging function of phloridzin have been confirmed by modern scientific research. Phlorizin, the hydrolysis product of phlorizin, can competitively inhibit the activity of tyrosinase and interfere with the synthesis of melanin. Its whitening effect is better than many whitening products on the market. However, it should be noted that phlorizin can increase the expression of tyrosinase gene by activating cAMP signaling pathway, which will lead to the production of melanin.