What’s Trehalose?

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Trehalose is an unusual disaccharide, a compound made up of two sugars; the sugars in trehalose are both glucose. Starch is also a disaccharide of glucose, but unlike starch, the glucose units in trehalose are combined into an alpha bond, which is an unusual type of chemical bond. It makes this compound non-reducing and remarkably stable at high temperatures and acidic conditions, properties atypical for most sugars. It also acts as an antioxidant. Trehalose is about half as sweet as glucose and is broken down into glucose by the enzyme trehalase.

The main function that trehalose is known for in biology is to protect organisms containing large quantities of it from extreme temperatures and desiccation. Trehalose was originally identified from a fungal infection on rye and first isolated from a substance produced by weevils. It is found in animals, plants, bacteria and fungi.

Trehalose is very effective at retaining water and this property is believed to allow certain organisms to survive desiccation or desiccation. This property is known as anhydrobiosis. The larvae of sea monkeys, for example, are able to come back to life seemingly miraculously with the addition of water. This is thought to occur because the trehalose acted like a gel and maintained the three-dimensional structure of the cell’s lipid and protein structures by surrounding them during the drying period and while the animals were rehydrated, allowing them to maintain their internal 3-D. structure. A similar situation is thought to exist for the resurrection moss Selaginella.

Only a very small amount of the human diet includes trehalose, and what people eat is mostly obtained from mushrooms. A small percentage of the population lacks the ability to produce the enzyme trehalase and therefore cannot break down trehalose. These people can get sick after eating some mushrooms like Shitake which contain trehalose. This condition is less common than lactose intolerance.

The stability, sweetness, and water-holding capacity of trehalose make it attractive for a variety of commercial applications in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. It is used as a food preservative and to minimize sour tastes and odors. It is used as a moisturizer in cosmetics and in research to stabilize proteins and lipids. It is also used to protect organs for transplants.

There is consumer interest in trehalose as an alternative to sugar as a sweetener. It doesn’t raise blood sugar levels as much as sugar and is considered more natural than synthetic alternatives, so it’s attractive to diabetics. Trehalose has also shown promise in model systems for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.

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