year 2006
Press release
The 6th International Conference Vitamins - "Health Ingredients Metabolism Analysis" was held the 11th-13thSeptember, 2006 at the University of Pardubice. The Conference was organized by Radanal Company, together with Society for Nutrition, ESA Biosciences, Recipe, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Brainway Inc. and others. This event was supported by many sponsors. There were 200 participants from 15 different countries working in chemistry, pharmaceutical and medical fields. Conference was held in English this year. The program comprised 42 plenary lectures, 83 poster presentations and tutorial workshop of ESA Biosciences, Recipe a Bia Separations, where the instrument users had a chance to study the theoretical basis and technical details of presented technologies.
Like every year, many works from the area of antioxidant research has been presented. A lot has been discussed about vitamin C, vitamin E and β-carotene, which are contained mainly in fruits and vegetables and contribute to their anticancerogenic activity. There is an assumption that the basis of cancer growth is the oxidative damage of DNA. Lots of research is being done to bring more prove to these assumptions.
A block of lectures about oxidative stress was based on this research. Oxidative stress has many causes and is connected to the occurrence of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegeneration and osteoporosis processes. Prevention of these diseases would mean an increase of the life quality of the population and this can be achieved by nutrition. The right nutrition can provide us not only with vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, but also with photochemical compounds such as phytosterols, glycosionates and omega-3 an omega-6 unsaturatted fatty acids.
Other functions of vitamins have been discussed. Besides there antioxidant properties, there are protective properties of lutein and β-carotene in the eye. There was a comparative study done on 13 different kinds of (Spinacea oleracea L.), which is rich in lutein and β-carotene. Both caroteinoids has shown an increase in their serum levels after consumption of 50 grams of spinach, 5 times a week, for 12 weeks. These results (carotenoid levels in the serum) differ from different kind of spinach.
Carotenoids and fat soluble vitamins - A, D, E play an important role during pregnancy, yet not many data about vitamin consumption in this important period is available. In the study of 218 pregnant women between the age 25 - 33, who were in the 3rd trimester of gravidity, it was found out that their RDD of vitamin A was 145 %, of carotenoids 50 %, of vitamin E 80 % and of vitamin D 32 %. High intake of vitamin A is not connected to an increased teratogenic effect. This is listed in the literature and happens from 3mg/ day. A warning should be a low intake of vitamin D and calcium, which leads to the decrease in bone density, leading to osteoporosis later in life.
In the literature we can see, that a lot of research in breeding plants has been done, leading to increasing their nutritional quality for humans. Modern genetics and biotechnology enables the development and research of enriched foods. As an example we can mention the golden rise, with a content of carotenois 31 - 37 μg/g, 23x higher than at the beginning of the breeding. In the rise Solaneum phureja L.cv.Mayan Gold the concentrations of carotenoids 78 μg/g were achieved. Such modified rise is helping to solve the vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.
A large block of lectures was traditionally devoted to the questions of homocysteine, folate acid, vitmin B6, vitamin B12 and vitamin B2. Negative or indifferent conclusions in prevention of cardiovascular disease have resulted from the NORVIT study (2005). We can say that the role of homocysteine research in this area is at the same level, as 10 years ago. The right nutrients, in prevention of wide spectrum of diseases should contain vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fiber and phytostreols.
For the diabetic patients, it is an important finding that they might suffer from a lack of chromium, which is important in insulin function; therefore it is desirable to supplement both diabetic type I and II patients with Chromium.
An entire block was devoted to the analytical methods, especially the news in the instrument equipment. Without an accurate, well reproducible and sensitive method, it would not be possible to achieve reliable results in agriculture, food industry or medicine.
Jarmila Blattná a Aleš Horna
V Pardubicích, 13. 10. 2006
You can see archive from years 2003 - 2005 here. (press release only in czech)
