| abstract |
The invention relates to a product for use in the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of infections, said treatment comprising the oral administration of the product, the product being chosen from a nutritional formulation, a food product, a dietary supplement, a beverage and a pharmaceutical product, said product containing carrot RG-I polysaccharides having the following characteristics of association: a molecular weight of between 10 and 300 kDa; A skeleton consisting of galacturonic acid residues and rhamnose residues, said rhamnose residues being contained in alpha (1 → 4) -galacturonic-alpha (1 → 2) -rhamnose residues; The following composition of monosaccharides: 20 to 60 mol% of galacturonic acid residues, the individual galacturonic acids possibly being methylated and / or acetyl esterified; 8 to 50 mol% of rhamnose residues; 0 to 40 mol% of arabinose residues; 0 to 40 mol% of galactose residues; a molar ratio of galacturonic acid residues to rhamnose residues in the range of 5: 1 to 1: 1; galacturonic acid residues, rhamnose residues, arabinose residues and galactose residues together constituting at least 85 mol% of monosaccharide residues in carrot RG-I polysaccharides. Carrot RG-I polysaccharides can be produced by partial hydrolysis of pectic polysaccharides present in a carrot pectin isolate. The effectiveness of carrot RG-I polysaccharides against infections is substantially improved by enzymatic hydrolysis of RG-I polysaccharides to remove at least a portion of the homogalacturonan component. |