Feasibility study on the application of pectin as pollen adsorbent to prevent pollinosis

In this study, to investigate the feasibility of applying pectin as an adsorbent to prevent pollinosis, we focused on the two types, low- and high‑methoxy pectin, and investigated its properties for application in nasal mucosa-protective preparations. A film adhesion test was performed, and the number of fluorescent microspheres (FMs) adsorbed to the pectin layer was prepared using a hydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride filter, and mucin was quantified by fluorescence. High‑methoxy pectin (HMP) caught more FMs than low‑methoxy pectin (LMP)(p < 0.05). The quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring revealed that HMP adhered more to mucin than LMP. The concentration of HMP did not affect adhesiveness. Furthermore, from evaluating the adsorbency of FMs on pectin and mucin, HMP shows higher adsorbency than LMP (p < 0.05). From these results, it could be concluded that pectin with an HMP had stronger interactions with mucin than LMP and could be applied to the nasal formulation to prevent pollinosis.