Bioactive Phytocompounds and Products Traditionally Used in Japan
Jin-ichi Sasaki
Summary
For centuries, East Asian people have used traditional herbs or functional foods as
folk medicine to treat or prevent diseases, long before the introduction of Western
medicine. Although Western medicine is often effective in curing acute diseases,
it is not necessarily applicable to the prevention of diseases.
In the twenty-first century, there has been a great upsurge of interest in the bio-
logical functions of food ingredients in relation to their physiological activities in
vivo. A mass of scientific data accumulated has stressed the presence of an interre-
lationship between lifestyle-related diseases, such as cancer, heart disorder, and di-
abetes, and daily food intake, and these kinds of diseases are considered to be pre-
ventable through diet modification.
In order to use foods to improve health, we first need to clarify scientifically the
functions of the foods, and to give reasonable scientific answers to questions such
as How well does this work? How safe is it? What type of conditions is it best used
for? Research aimed at answering these kinds of questions is still considered a less
scientifically valid field than conventional medicine.
In addition, foods or herbs with various biological functions are gradually being
recognized as having a use as second medicines, able to intervene in the preven-
tion or therapy of diseases. Post-operative cancer patients are actually employing
their own devised foods menu to inhibit the recurrence of disease due to remain-
ing malignant cells.
In this chapter I describe the functions of general vegetables and plants available
in Japan, such as garlic powder (antibacterial activity, prolongation of blood coagu-
lation, antioxidant activity), garlic odor (antibacterial activity), Japanese cypress oil
and oil flavor (antibacterial activity), edible mushrooms (Grifola frondosa, maitake)
or nonedible mushrooms (Lampteromyces japonicus Singer, tsukiyotake), and
sweetcorn powder (cancer-curing activity).
79
4.1
Introduction
Throughout the world, there has been an upsurge of interest in the topic of func-
tional foods in relation to lifestyle-related diseases, such as arterial sclerosis, hyper-
tension, malignancy, diabetes, and others. The Ministry of Health and Welfare in
Japan has stated that the modification of the daily diet can reduce the incidence of
a wide variety of cancers by 30%.
In the US the National Cancer Institute launched a major project 15 years ago
called the “Designer Foods Project,” which aimed to provide citizens with benefi-
cial scientific information to restrain an outbreak of cancer [1]. Since then, nation-
wide studies have been carried out with the same objective to improve the health of
the Japanese population.
In 1996 there was a serious outbreak of food poisoning in Japan caused by enter-
ohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157: H7. It was estimated to have affected over
12000 people and resulted in at least 12 deaths. However, despite intensive investi-
gations, the source and carrier of the infection remained unclear. The whole nation
went into panic about the unknown source of the infection and many studies were
immediately initiated to seek for functional foods with bacteria-killing potency.
To date, although numerous food-related books have been published in this area
in Japan, many of them lack their own data, and are just collections from other
books. Information is passed around from book to book just by changing the titles
and they are repeatedly using the same old data.
In this chapter, I will advance the debate on the food functions of garlic, vegeta-
ble odors (flavors), sweetcorn, mushrooms, and Japanese cypress oil (hinokitiol) by
introducing our own new data.
Jin-ichi Sasaki
Summary
For centuries, East Asian people have used traditional herbs or functional foods as
folk medicine to treat or prevent diseases, long before the introduction of Western
medicine. Although Western medicine is often effective in curing acute diseases,
it is not necessarily applicable to the prevention of diseases.
In the twenty-first century, there has been a great upsurge of interest in the bio-
logical functions of food ingredients in relation to their physiological activities in
vivo. A mass of scientific data accumulated has stressed the presence of an interre-
lationship between lifestyle-related diseases, such as cancer, heart disorder, and di-
abetes, and daily food intake, and these kinds of diseases are considered to be pre-
ventable through diet modification.
In order to use foods to improve health, we first need to clarify scientifically the
functions of the foods, and to give reasonable scientific answers to questions such
as How well does this work? How safe is it? What type of conditions is it best used
for? Research aimed at answering these kinds of questions is still considered a less
scientifically valid field than conventional medicine.
In addition, foods or herbs with various biological functions are gradually being
recognized as having a use as second medicines, able to intervene in the preven-
tion or therapy of diseases. Post-operative cancer patients are actually employing
their own devised foods menu to inhibit the recurrence of disease due to remain-
ing malignant cells.
In this chapter I describe the functions of general vegetables and plants available
in Japan, such as garlic powder (antibacterial activity, prolongation of blood coagu-
lation, antioxidant activity), garlic odor (antibacterial activity), Japanese cypress oil
and oil flavor (antibacterial activity), edible mushrooms (Grifola frondosa, maitake)
or nonedible mushrooms (Lampteromyces japonicus Singer, tsukiyotake), and
sweetcorn powder (cancer-curing activity).
79
4.1
Introduction
Throughout the world, there has been an upsurge of interest in the topic of func-
tional foods in relation to lifestyle-related diseases, such as arterial sclerosis, hyper-
tension, malignancy, diabetes, and others. The Ministry of Health and Welfare in
Japan has stated that the modification of the daily diet can reduce the incidence of
a wide variety of cancers by 30%.
In the US the National Cancer Institute launched a major project 15 years ago
called the “Designer Foods Project,” which aimed to provide citizens with benefi-
cial scientific information to restrain an outbreak of cancer [1]. Since then, nation-
wide studies have been carried out with the same objective to improve the health of
the Japanese population.
In 1996 there was a serious outbreak of food poisoning in Japan caused by enter-
ohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157: H7. It was estimated to have affected over
12000 people and resulted in at least 12 deaths. However, despite intensive investi-
gations, the source and carrier of the infection remained unclear. The whole nation
went into panic about the unknown source of the infection and many studies were
immediately initiated to seek for functional foods with bacteria-killing potency.
To date, although numerous food-related books have been published in this area
in Japan, many of them lack their own data, and are just collections from other
books. Information is passed around from book to book just by changing the titles
and they are repeatedly using the same old data.
In this chapter, I will advance the debate on the food functions of garlic, vegeta-
ble odors (flavors), sweetcorn, mushrooms, and Japanese cypress oil (hinokitiol) by
introducing our own new data.
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