Plant cell walls: impact on nutrient bioaccessibility and digestibility

Holland, C., Ryden, P., Edwards, C. H. and Grundy, M. M.-L. (2020) Plant cell walls: impact on nutrient bioaccessibility and digestibility. Foods, 9 (2). e201. ISSN 2304-8158 doi: 10.3390/foods9020201

Abstract/Summary

Cell walls are important structural components of plants, affecting both the bioaccessibility and subsequent digestibility of the nutrients that plant-based foods contain. These supramolecular structures are composed of complex heterogeneous networks primarily consisting of cellulose, and hemicellulosic and pectic polysaccharides. The composition and organization of these different polysaccharides vary depending on the type of plant tissue, imparting them with specific physicochemical properties. These properties dictate how the cell walls behave in the human gastrointestinal tract, and how amenable they are to digestion, thereby modulating nutrient release from the plant tissue. This short narrative review presents an overview of our current knowledge on cell walls and how they impact nutrient bioaccessibility and digestibility. Some of the most relevant methods currently used to characterize the food matrix and the cell walls are also described.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/89113
Identification Number/DOI	10.3390/foods9020201
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Animal Sciences > Animal, Dairy and Food Chain Sciences (ADFCS)- DO NOT USE
Uncontrolled Keywords	cell wall, nutrients bioaccessibility, nutrients digestion, polysaccharides, plant-based food matrix
Publisher	MDPI
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