The application of pectin
 
Pectin is a non-toxic water-soluble dietary fiber with excellent gelation and emulsification stability. The United Nations food and agriculture organization and the world health organization expert committee has notified pectin unrestricted used as food additives with no limited and also considered pectin as safe food additives.

Due to the high security, excellent food processing performance and wide biological activities, MCP’s application area is expanding, and become the most popular raw material in food, health care products and cosmetics industry .　

1. The original application of pectin - food additives

Natural pectin is a kind of dietary fiber exists widely in plant kingdom, it is a kind of polymer material, belongs to the polysaccharide polymer compounds. Because of its good gelation and emulsification properties and is with high safety, pectin is widely used as a thickener, stabilizer and emulsifier in food, medicine and cosmetics industry.
Pectin as gelling agent is widely used in the production of jam, jelly, baked food and drink, and also can be used as thickener and stabilizer in fruit juices, dairy products. High methoxyl pectin has a thermal stability so that it can be used for the preparation of baked foods. High methoxyl pectin can effectively stabilize yoghurt products and improve its flavor, also can be used as stabilizer to combine milk and juice into compound drinks. Traditional way is to make salad dressing with xanthan gum as stabilizer, and pectin with better stability and smell is now widely used in all kinds of sauce products as stabilizing agent. In addition, the pectin can be used as thickener in juice and sugar-free drinks. Add some pectin in fruit juice can keep the pulp and suspension solution not stratified and improve the taste.

Add some pectin into jelly recipe can make the gel structure more stable. Pectin can slow the growth rate of crystal in frozen food by controlling the size of the ice crystals to improve the quality and structure of frozen food, reduce the loss when syrup melts. Pectin can also prevent escape of flavor and pigment in the ice and ice cream. After processing frozen fruits with Ca2 + and pectin, plate fruit is more stable than full fruit.

2. The latest application of pectin - pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry

2.1 Use pectin as drug excipients in the pharmaceutical industry
Pectin is a kind of hydrophilic emulsifier，thickener and gelling agent, can be alone or together use with other excipients to make ointment, suppository, micro capsule and other pharmaceutical preparations.

2.2. Use pectin as targeted anti-tumor drug in the pharmaceutical industry

Many researchers found that MCP can target block galectin-3 on the surface of tumor cells, inhibit the formation, development and metastasis of tumor.
　
2.3 Pectin in clinical application
Pectin has pharmacological effects such as antibacterial, hemostatic, anti-cancer, etc. It can be alone or together with other drugs to be the treatment of certain diseases.
In recent 10 years the reports of edible plant fiber for the treatment of diabetes increasing gradually, plant fiber plays an important role in digestion, absorption and metabolism of nutrients. The experimental results show that pectin treatment can significantly lower blood sugar and be used as a simple auxiliary measures for the treatment of diabetes.
Pectin can reduce blood lipid, can be made to granules to treat arteriosclerosis.
In recent years, universities like Guangzhou Medical University, Tianjin University, Northwest University, Zhejiang University, etc. has conducted a series of research on the anti-tumor activity of pectin and found that ginseng pectin, tomato pectin, pumpkin pectin, apple pectin, and citrus pectin has good inhibition function for colon cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer and breast cancer, and this anticancer activity is related to the block of galectin - 3. Because modified citrus pectin is easy to control the molecular weight and degree of esterification, it is a good antitumor raw material for food and medicine.
2.4 Use pectin in cosmetics
 
Experiments found that pectin has good hygroscopic and moisture effect. The moisture performance is similar with collagen protein. The hygroscopic and moisture property makes pectin a good ingredient in cosmetics development.