Bioactive polysaccharides from lupin seeds

Poster presentation. Australia is world's largest producer and exporter of Lupinus angustifolius (blue lupin). Lupin has been very valuable plant for Australian farmers in terms of rotational crop to fix atmospheric nitrogen to soil and hence has become one of the major grain crops in the country. Over 1 million tons of blue lupin grains are produced annually in Australia. Major health benefits of the sweet lupin include great source of dietary fibre (non-starch polysaccharides) and protein with extremely low cholesterol levels. The tremendous health benefits of lupin seeds are not fully utilised for human consumption (mostly used for animal feed and less than 4% is consumed globally as human food). Considering the fact that lupin seeds have excellent nutritional value, there is huge potential for utilisation by humans and also in nutraceutical /pharmaceutical industry .Studies involving biological activities of lupin constituents are expected to provide beneficial information and consequently add further value to this product. It is clear from the literature that lupin is enriched with large contents of beneficial polysaccharides. The potential nutraceutical value of Lupin polysaccharides has not been fully explored. It is possible to isolate these polysaccharides from lupin and utilise them to derive supplements with nutraceutical/pharmaceutical value. Considering their health benefits, it is extremely important to investigate the spectrum of biological activities that lupin polysaccharides display. This study has explored the biological activities of polysaccharides isolated from blue lupin seeds. Lupin polysaccharides have been successfully extracted, fractionated and their antioxidant and immunostimulatory activities have been determined in this study. These fractions displayed significant radical scavenging, iron chelating and immunostimulatory activities.