Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1VIETFIOD FOR MEASURING THE GERONTOLOGICAL VALUE OF
BIO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES AND COMPOSITIONS,
MAINLY FOODSTUFFS AND COSMETICS
Field of the Invention ,
The present invention relates to physico-chemical aspects of gerontology,
geriatrics,
and dietology, and ensures the assessment of foodstuffs and cosmetics in the
context of
multiple problems in the sphere of biology and medicine, and the tasks aimed
at preserving
health, improving quality of life and extending the life-span, as well as
maintaining beautiful
1o body.
Background of the Invention
Currently, all known recommendations pertaining to retardation of aging
processes
and prolongation of lifetime are being formulated on the experimental basis
only. The use of
many known diets and cosmetics in the effort to preserve youth and to prolong
life is not
always justified, since the assessment of quality of the recommended bio-
active substances,
compositions and products in terms of their gerontological value as such is
unfeasible.
Moreover, no methods are available to provide objective information when
comparing the
gerontological values of bio-active substances falling into the same category,
e.g.
foodstuffs. In particular, it is impossible to determine the gerontological
value of the
2o vegetable oils which are produced from the same raw material, yet derived
from the plants
grown in different geographic regions, or the vegetable oils produced by
different methods,
etc.
The gerontological value of bio-active substances, compositions and products
is
generally defined only invoking the empiric experience, while the existing
tests prohibit the
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quantitative comparison of the gerontological value of bio-active substances,
compositions
and products.
Summary of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for assessing the
gerontological value of bio-active substances, compositions and products. The
method
ensures, using the appropriate indicator, GPG (abbreviation from Georgi
Pavlovich
Gladyshev), the comparison of the gerontological value of bio-active
substances,
compositions and products on the quantitative basis, and offers the
opportunity for making
practical conclusions and recommendations based on this comparison.
to The solution of the above object can provide the attainment of new results,
including
the possibility to use the obtained values of the GPG indicator for handling
the problems
concerned with preservation of youth of organism and beautiful body,
improvement of
health and prolongation of human life. The possibilities could be also
provided for devising
proper diets and prescribing differential recommendations to people of various
ages.
The aforementioned results are achieved by a method for measuring the
gerontological value of bio-active substances and compositions, mainly
foodstuffs and
cosmetics, said method including the steps of
determining a minimum melting temperature of an examined supramolecular
structure of samples taken from a series of products to be studied;
2o specifying a standard temperature which is less than the minimum melting
temperature of the examined supramolecular structure of samples taken from the
series of
products studied;
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determining a value of the specific Gibbs function of formation of the
examined
supramolecular structure for samples taken from the studied series of products
at said
standard temperature;
selecting, by a minimum value of the specific Gibbs function of formation of
the
examined supramolecular structure, a standard sample for which a
gerontological value
indicator is assumed to be unity;
determining, for an examined sample, a value of the specific Gibbs function of
formation of the examined supramolecular structure at the standard
temperature;
comparing the values of the specific Gibbs function of formation of the
to supramolecular structure of the standard sample and the examined sample by
defining the
relation between said values, and
judging the gerontological value of the examined sample from the direct
proportionality to the value of said relation.
A distinctive feature of the present invention is that a reference parameter
is a
minimum (maximum by the absolute value) value of the specific Gibbs function
of
formation of the examined supramolecular structure of a product from the
studied series at
the standard temperature, said value being compared with similar
characteristics of other
products, which are also determined at the standard temperature. The standard
temperature
is a temperature which is less than a melting temperature of the most readily
melting
2o examined supramolecular structure in the series of products (samples)
studied.
The standard temperature is preferably a temperature which is from 2 to 6
degrees
lower than the minimum melting temperature of the examined supramolecular
structure of
samples taken from the series of products studied.
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Further, the melting temperature is preferably a melting temperature of lipid
and/or
protein, and/or carbohydrate, and/or nucleotide structures of the samples.
The most valuable results from employment of the present invention can be
obtained
when comparing the gerontological value of similar products, e.g. tissues of
plant and
animal organs, natural fats, etc. ,
The present invention is based on the following prerequisites. Value of the
specific
Gibbs function of formation of both homogeneous and heterogeneous
supramolecular
structures, ~G;'" , can define the thermodynamic stability of these structures
of bio-active
substances and compositions, in particular, of foodstuffs. Furthermore, value
OG;"' defines
1o the degree of "evolution youth" of these products.
With the precision suf~'icient for practical purposes, value ~G;~' can be
calculated
with the use of the approximated Gibbs-Helmholtz equation:
OG.~' = OH~' T ~ T° _ ~ T T ' _ ~ ~~T ( 1 )
~.; T ..; T
fi. ~:
where OH~ is the specific enthalpy of formation of supramolecular structure,
OH~,; is the specific enthalpy of melting/denaturation of supramolecular
structure,
._-
T ; is the average absolute melting temperature of i-th structure,
o is the standard absolute temperature at which OG;°" is calculated,
~.f~ is the specific entropy of formation of supramolecular structure.
2o When necessary, more precise calculations may be performed using the more
exact
Gibbs-Helmholtz equation.
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It has been also found that OG,'" of a bio-active substance or product
correlates
with chemical composition of tissues, especially those of living organisms,
which changes
both in phylogenesis and ontogenesis, i.e. as the organism ages. Therefore,
the possibility
exists of assessing value OG;°" not only with the aid of calorimetric
measurements of values
5 ~H~,; or OH,~ , but also by using data of chemical composition of the
biological mass.
Therefore, value OG°" can be readily estimated using known calibrating
plots of
functional relations ~G;~' = f (c;) , through measuring water concentration Cl
in plant and
animal tissues or in their supramolecular structures. In this case it can be
assumed that pure
water or physiologic salt solution exhibits the highest gerontological value.
1o However, to compare quantitatively the gerontological values of various bio-
active
substances, compositions and products, it is insuffcient to operate on values
OG;°"
pertaining to arbitrarily specified values of To . Moreover, to assess a
comparative
gerontological value of products it is required to select standard samples for
various classes
of products and to determine standard values OGy for them.
I5 It has turned out that values of OG;°" for each sample taken from
the series of
products studied should be determined at a value of T which is less than the
melting
temperature of the examined supramolecular structure of the most readily
melting sample in
the series of products studied. In this case, values of OG;°" for each
sample examined will
be normalized, as they are determined at single value of 10 , this allowing
the quantitative
2o comparison thereof with the standard value. The comparison is performed by
determining
the relation between standard value OG" , which is a minimum (maximum by the
absolute
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value) value of the specific Gibbs function of formation of supramolecular
structure of a
product from the series studied, and value OG;~' of the examined sample.
The method in accordance with the present invention can be illustrated by the
following examples.
Example 1. Determination of GPG indicators for various fats
Subjects for study were: trilaurin ((3-form), tristearin ((3-form), butter
fat,
hydrogenated cotton oil, cotton oil, peanut oil. Melting temperatures of
supramolecular
structures of the fat samples were determined. A minimum melting temperature
of
supramolecular structure of one product from the studied series of products
was established
to to be 273 K (peanut oil),. However, in view of the fact that there exist
food fats (lipids)
which exhibit a melting temperature about (225-230)K, the standard temperature
was
specified as To = 223K. Values of the specific Gibbs function of formation of
supramolecular structures were calculated at this standard temperature for all
of the listed
samples.
1 s Tristearin was selected as the standard sample having the minimum value of
the
specific Gibbs function of formation of supramolecular structures ( OGy -81
J/g), and its
gerontological value indicator was taken as unity. Gerontological value
indicators for all of
the remaining samples were determined by calculating the relation between the
standard
value of the specific Gibbs function of formation of supramolecular structure
of the standard
2o sample and the examined samples. The measurement and calculation data is
summarized in
Table 1.
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Table 1
No. Fat _ 7~, ~ ~l;" _ -OH;'" OG;" OGy
K , ,
GPG = _
J/g J/g ~G~~
1 Trilaurin 320 193.5 -59 1.4
(~i-form)
2 Tristearin 346.2 228.0 -81 1.0
((3-form)
3 Butter fat 305 81.6 -22 3.7
4 Hydrogenated 305 185.0 -50 1.6
cotton oil
Cotton oil 278 86.0 -17 5.1
6 Peanut oil 273 90.9 -16.5 4.9
Using data in Table l, a series of comparative gerontological values of the
studied
fats can be written. The series, written in ascending order of the GPG
indicators, can be
5 presented as follows: tristearin (1.0) < trilaurin (1.4) < hydrogenated
cotton oil (1.6) <
butter fat (3.7) < peanut oil (4.9) < cotton oil (5.1). The above sequence
correlates well
with the qualitative medical recommendations which have been formulated on the
basis of
great empiric experience in the field of medicine and molecular biology.
Example 2. Determination of the gerontological value indicator for various
samples
to taken from the individual product, butter fat
Melting temperatures of six samples (from 27°C to 37°C) were
measured. The
standard temperature was 25°C (298K). Values ~G;'" were determined at
the standard
temperature, and values of GPG were calculated. The results are summarized in
Table 2.
Analysis of Table 2 shows that Sample No.4 exhibits the greatest CPC value
(5,85). It is
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evident that the lower the melting temperature of a fat, the more
gerontologically valuable
the fat is.
Table 2
No. T , , K ~G,~ OG "
' GPG =
J/g
I 304 (31C) -1.61 1.96
2 310 (37C) -3.16 1.00
3 302 (29C) -1.08 2.93
4 300 (27C) -0.54 5.85
308 (35C) -2.65 1.19
6 306 (33C) -2.13 1.48
5 Example 3. Determination of the gerontological value indicator for flesh of
different-aged pigs
Melting temperatures of supramolecular protein structures of samples taken
from
the product (flesh) of animals of various age were determined (see Table 3).
The standard
temperature was set at 25°C (298K). Standard value OGy = -3.85 J/g.
1o Determined were values of OG;~' and GPG. The results presented in Table 3
demonstrate that the product (tissue) of younger organisms exhibits a greater
value of GPG.
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Table 3
Age of animal
' GPG = _
J/g ~G~"
Embryo -0. S S 7.0
(3 weeks)
I week -3.14 1.22
1 month -3.43 1.12
1 year -3.63 1.06
2 years -3.80 1.01 S
3 years -3.85 1.00
Industrial Applicability
The method in accordance with the present invention is applicable to
assessment of
the gerontological value of any foodstuffs (including food additives),
biological
compositions, medicaments and cosmetics used by human in everyday life. The
method can
be also employed for estimating the gerontological quality of feed for animals
and
supplementary feeding for plants.
