Pharmaceutical Food Sciences

Research Project

Search for bio-functional molecules obtained from natural resources to prevent and ameliorate lifestyle-related and age-related diseases

• Discovery and structural determination of new naturally occurring bio-functional molecules based on MONOTORI science
• Search for bio-functional natural products that suppress postprandial blood glucose elevation and/or ameliorate glucose tolerance
• Search for bio-functional natural products that reduce visceral fat accumulation and ameliorate lipid metabolism
• Search for bio-functional natural products that prevent and ameliorate intractable inflammatory diseases
• Search for cosmeceutical natural products that contribute whitening or improve skin condition
• Elucidation of traditional medicinal properties and Development of new functionalities of crude drug resources
• Development of the mechanism of action and structure-activity relationship of bio-functional natural products and synthetic study of the molecular probes

Introduction

Among the natural resources, various products are used for medicinal purposes, including crude drugs, traditional medicines, and medicinal plants. Some of them are used for both medicinal and edible purposes and are used as a health food (functional food) that are expected to have the tertiary function of foods, the body-modulating function, with the goal of contributing to the maintenance and improvement of people’s health through food. We have been conducting “Pharmaceutical Food Science” research to search for bio-functional products from natural resources that contribute to the prevention of lifestyle-related and age-related diseases, or the improvement of their initial symptoms.