Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on September 13, 2007
Glycobiology 2008 18(9):652-657; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwm098
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A "Glyconutrient Sham"
3 Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205
4 Sanford Children's Health Research Center, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
2 To whom correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: hudson{at}burnham.org and schnaar{at}jhu.edu
Received on November 28, 2007; revised on May 12, 2008; accepted on June 4, 2008
Abstract
The discipline of glycobiology contributes to our understanding of human health and disease through research, most of which is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Recently, legitimate discoveries in glycobiology have been used as marketing tools to help sell plant extracts termed "glyconutrients." The glyconutrient industry has a worldwide sales force of over half a million people and sells nearly half a billion dollars (USD) of products annually. Here we address the relationship between glyconutrients and glycobiology, and how glyconutrient claims may impact the public and our discipline.
Key words: aloe glucomannan / Ambrotose® / larch arabinogalactan / Mannatech / nutraceutical / Texas Attorney General
Footnotes
1 The statements in this article are solely the opinions of the authors based on their reasonable evaluation of publicly available information.