engleski

GLUTEN IN DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES

Gluten is naturally found in food, especially in certain grains such as wheat, rye, and barley. The consumption of gluten causes damage to the lining of the small intestine, preventing the absorption of nutrients and causing deficiencies that can lead to severe conditions and diseases. Inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic relapsing diseases affecting millions worldwide and disrupting their daily lives and requiring prescribing of drugs and dietary supplements. In addition to the active substance, orally formulated drugs contain a whole range of ingredients, such as excipients. Excipients can be synthetic or from natural sources originating from plants. One common excipient is starch. Corn, potatoes, and wheat are the most common starch types. Therefore, oral drugs and dietary supplements in the form of tablets and capsules are potential sources of gluten contamination. Plants and dietary supplements are important sources of biologically active components that have a positive effect on human health. In addition, the use of dietary supplements is constantly increasing. On the other hand, health professionals do not recognize the potential sources of gluten in orally formulated drugs. For all the listed reasons, this work aimed to evaluate gluten content in dietary supplements. Forty-five samples were collected from local pharmacies, food health stores and purchased from the Internet (products online-only available in Croatia). All dietary supplements were classified as botanical monopreparations and multipreparation, as they contained one or more of the investigated herbal extracts: Indian frankincense, Green chiretta and Turmeric. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect and quantitate gluten in investigated samples. All samples were analyzed in duplicate prior to stated expiry date. Based on the obtained results, the gluten content was above the LOQ value (0.15 ng/mL) in 12 samples, while in one dietary supplement was over 20 ppm (28 µg/mL). Therefore, there are currently no labeling requirements for gluten found in orally formulated drugs and dietary supplements, while all foods labeled "gluten-free" must contain less than 20 ppm gluten. To sum up, all analyzed dietary supplements except one sample contained gluten less than the FDA criteria. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project numbers [UIP-2017-05-3949, DOK-2021-02- 7922].

gluten ; IBD ; dietary supplements

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