The present invention relates to a method for preparing a porous scaffold for tissue engineering. It is another object of the present invention to provide a porous scaffold obtainable by the method as above described, and its use for tissue engineering, cell culture and cell delivery. The method of the invention comprises the steps consisting of: a) preparing an alkaline aqueous solution comprising an amount of at least one polysaccharide, an amount of a cross-linking agent and an amount of a porogen agent b) transforming the solution into a hydrogel by placing said solution at a temperature from about 4° C. to about 80° C. for a sufficient time to allow the cross-linking of said amount of polysaccharide and c) submerging said hydrogel into an aqueous solution d) washing the porous scaffold obtained at step c).

This invention relates to a method for cultivating pluriennial plants belonging to the Cardueae tribe and for the integrated recovery of inulin, seeds and biomass from the said plants.

A vegetable product obtained from vegetable matter selected from at least one of root, tubers and leaves of a plant having inulin as a reserve carbohydrate, wherein the product includes particles having particle sizes in the range of 0.5 to 10 mm and including inulin and cell walls having pectin, hemi-cellulose and cellulose, wherein the inulin is contained within the cell walls, and the product is obtained by a process including the steps of: a) wounding the vegetable matter, b) treating the vegetable matter with an aqueous solution having an antioxidant and/or a textural support agent and heating the vegetable matter to a temperature of 40 to 90° C. and c) mechanically reducing the size of the vegetable matter and drying the vegetable matter to obtain the product.

An aqueous dispersion of fructan-containing particles, wherein the D.sub.50 of the fructan-containing particles lies between 2 μm and 50 μm and the solids content of the aqueous dispersion lies between 61 wt. % and 80 wt. %. Also described is a process for the preparation of an aqueous dispersion of fructan-containing particles comprising: bringing fructan and water together to form a mixture; optionally hydrolyzing a portion of the fructans in the mixture, such that at the end of this step between 5 wt. % and 25 wt. % of all fructans in the mixture are essentially non-soluble at room temperature; optionally bring the mixture into contact with a purification agent, followed by removal of the purification agent from the mixture; and concentrating the mixture such that the solids content lies between 61 and 80%.

Compositions comprising metal ions or clusters such as ferrous and/or ferric iron compounds or magnesium, zinc, lanthanum and other metal ion compounds and fiber components such as gum Arabic in a complex, methods for preparing such compositions of matter, and the use thereof for treatment of adsorbing certain accessible targets in the gastrointestinal tract and in an extracorporeal system, are provided herein.

The present invention relates to a method for purifying an aqueous liquid comprising inulin, in particular chicory root inulin, and one or more impurities, said method comprising filtration of said aqueous liquid employing a nanofiltration membrane having a molecular weight cut-off value of less than 2 kDa, without employing ion-exchange treatment. The invention further relates to the inulin composition obtainable by the method and to inulin compositions which comprise low concentrations of impurities while comprising significant amounts of short-chain (low DP) inulin.

Methods of manufacturing high fiber vegetable product, compositions including high fiber vegetable product, food or animal feed ingredients including high fiber vegetable product, and foods or animal feeds including high fiber vegetable products are provided.

A method for obtaining an inulin-containing composition includes providing an inulin-containing plant material, such as Cichorium intybus roots, and providing the inulin-containing plant material in particulate form, wherein the particles have a particle size distribution such that at most 45 vol % of the particles has a size ≤0.15 mm, and at least 90 vol % of the particles has a size ≤4.0 mm. The optionally dried particulate inulin-containing plant material is then subjected to an extraction step in which the inulin is extracted from the plant material to obtain an inulin-enriched juice and an inulin-depleted pulp, which are then separated, preferably by either vacuum filtration, pressure filtration and/or centrifugation.

The present invention relates to compositions comprising dried chicory root and pea cell wall fibers for reducing, preventing and/or treating dysentery in animals, poultry and humans. The invention also relates to the use of said compositions in feed and food.

The invention related to organic and bioorganic combinatorial chemistry, namely, to new combinatorial libraries of polysaccharide derivatives and supramolecular structures based on them, which, when used without separation into separate components, have high biological activity.

The essence is a combinatorial library and a supramolecular structure based on it from biologically active derivatives of polysaccharides, as well as pharmaceutical compositions based on them with a hemostatic, wound healing, antiviral and immunomodulating action, containing as an active substance an undivided whole combinatorial mixture of substituted glucopyranose polymer derivatives, obtained simultaneous combinatorial modification of a polysaccharide with at least two covalent modifier in the synthesis, a combinatorial mixture with the maximum number of combinations of modified polysaccharide derivatives is formed, and as a biologically active substance, a whole combinatorial mixture of polysaccharide derivatives in the form of a supramolecular structure without separation into individual components is used to obtain a pharmaceutical composition.