Herbal Carbohydrates

What Are Herbal Carbohydrates?

The dietary importance of herbal carbohydrates is understood by everyone, and we are also familiar with different types of dietary carbohydrates like simple glucose, fructose, starch and cellulose. Each and every plant in this world is chiefly made up of various types of carbohydrates, and it is well assumed that these components exist in medicinal herbs as well. Herbal carbohydrates play a vital role in human metabolic activities by building a precious energy pool and a critical fat depository. Several components of sugar in combination of other dietary nutrients also act as important healing components.

Carbohydrates are basic building blocks of your body and they are composed of tiny components called sugars. In biochemical terms, carbohydrates are classified based on the number and type of sugars they contain in their structure. Carbohydrates could be either very simple or heterogeneously complex according to their molecular structure.

Different Types of Herbal Carbohydrates

Three important types of sugar are:

• Monosaccharide or single sugars: Many sugars like glucose, fructose, galactose are called primary sugars of the plant kingdom. Apart from these simple sugars, plants also contain wood sugars like xylose, ribose and arabinose that act as secondary sugars in several metabolic processes. Simple sugars are not known to possess any pharmacological action on humans and they are metabolized through normal carbohydrate disintegration processes.

• Disaccharide or twin sugars: These sugars are somewhat complex in their nature and contain two basic sugars in different combinations (which may be glucose + fructose, or glucose +glucose or glucose + galactose). Three main components of disaccharide are sucrose (glucose + fructose), maltose (glucose + glucose) and lactose (glucose + galactose). Most of these sugars are quickly broken down into simple sugars during carbohydrate metabolism.

• Polysaccharide: Large in their molecule size and multi-sugar in their structure, polysaccharide is a major group of sugars that also includes amyloses. Amyloses are the glucose storage deposits such as starch and glycogen (only in animals), cellulose and fructose based insulin. There are several other minor glucose acids belonging to sugars like hemicelluloses, pectin, gums and mucilage.
  

Benefits of Herbal Carbohydrates

Herbal carbohydrates gain importance when their polysaccharides are exploited to their fullest potential. Recent studies indicate the possibility of using polysaccharides as immuno-stimulants in counteracting many diseases and ailments. Of late, a North American herb called Echinacea has been subjected to many experiments to determine if it has any immuno-stimulatory properties. Along with this precious herb, many other medicinal herbs like Chamomile, Calendula, Wild indigo, and Saw palmetto, as well as Siberian ginseng, are also thought to possess several important medicinal properties. However, the basic herbal action of these herbal carbohydrates is generated while they are being absorbed in the gut.

Herbal celluloses are the most efficient roughage substances that help you to transport the digested food from the stomach to the rectum. Some classes of herbal drugs are modified to get absorbed either in the small intestine or large intestine. Pectin possesses a number of therapeutic properties compared to other carbohydrates and in the digestive tract it acts as a wonderful laxative and a superb healing agent to cure several intestinal disorders like dysentery and infectious diarrhea. Its healing property could also be extended to cure ulcers and deep cut wounds. Pectin activity can also help diabetic patients to delay the release of sugars from the food, while it is also known to reduce the levels of cholesterol in the body. Gums and mucilage are excellent agents that paint a coat of slime on the walls of the stomach, duodenum, small and large intestines.