Tequila, agave and new drugs

The agave plant, from which tequila is made, produces a type of sugar that could be used in the future to coat drugs to prevent their digestion in the stomach

 The agave plant, from which tequila is produced. Photo from Wikipedia

Tequila, the liquid distilled from the blue Mexican plant, agave (Agave tequilana azul), does not have a reputation as a liquid that benefits the digestive system. Tequila is an alcoholic drink produced by fermenting yeast and breaking down sugars extracted from the tubers of the blue agave plant. However, in the near future, the blue agave plant itself may help and bring relief to people suffering from colon diseases.
In a report on March 27 at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, scientists found that tiny hollow spheres, which are formed from sugars in the agave plant, sugars called fructans, can wrap and surround selected drugs, thus putting a protective layer on them against the strong acidic environment in the stomach.
Fructan is a polysaccharide used for preservation purposes in most C3 plants and a number of other plants. Fructan consists mainly of chains of fructose. In plants, fructan production occurs only when the plant is under certain conditions, usually when growth is limited by some kind of stress, while sunlight continues to produce sugars, which the plant cannot use. The fructan is used in these plants as an energy reserve for use in difficult times.
This strategy, of surrounding the drug molecules in fructans, may allow drugs for colitis (inflammation of the large intestine) and a variety of other large intestine diseases to pass safely through the digestive system to the large intestine and there to take effect.