Cellulose In Digestion

What if humans could digest fiber? 

Cellulose, the most abundant type of insoluble fiber in human diets, is also the most ubiquitous organic material on the planet . Cell walls are constructed of cellulose, which is composed of millions of structurally alternating glucose units (Fig. 1). This structure provides strength to cellulose while also preventing it from interacting with human enzymes. Because both molecules are made up of glucose subunits, cellulose and starch have the same amount of energy. That energy can only be used if wood and other cellulose-based materials are burned. However, if that energy were physiologically available, humans might consume less food and produce far less waste than they do now.

Cellulose Digestion in Humans

When it comes to engineering humans to digest cellulose as a food source, the advantages of turning it into biofuel are just as important. Currently, technology concentrates on managing cellulose hydrolysis and processing in factories, but in the future, humans may serve as the machine for extracting energy from cellulose, especially since cellulose hydrolyzing enzymes are difficult to isolate in high numbers for commercial usage. Termites are small organisms, yet as a colony, they can destroy huge structures and houses. With an estimated 1 kg of bacteria in a healthy human digestive system, adding a few more harmless varieties should not be a problem .

Termites and ruminants are excellent examples of species that make effective use of microorganisms. However, introducing microorganisms into the human body would necessitate some changes to the human body. Most microorganisms cannot thrive in our stomach because it is far too acidic. The acid, together with other fluids and enzymes, travels with the food into the small intestine, where microorganisms may compete for food with us. Only the cellulose material is left for dehydration and potentially hydrolysis by the time the food reaches the big intestines. Our huge intestines, on the other hand, are unable to absorb the sugars produced by the microorganisms during hydrolysis. 

Another organ might be introduced to the end of the human gastrointestinal tract to accommodate cellulose-digesting microorganisms specifically. Although modern science allows for safe interspecies transplantation, the ideal answer would be to genetically modify humans to create their own organs, avoiding the problems of surgery and organ transplantation. The use of genetic engineering to cure disease and illness is still controversial, thus non-essential activities like cellulose digestion will remain impossible until the scientific and medical societies recognise genetic engineering as a safe and viable process.

Supplements comparable to those used to treat lactose intolerance might be a simpler approach. In the stomach, cellulose can be broken down and absorbed as glucose. By extracting the correct enzymes to work in the human stomach, the difficulties of microbial support inside the human body can be avoided. Furthermore, because the process would take place inside the human body, the restrictions that plagued industrial cellulose hydrolysis would become important biological controls. Lactase is easily extracted from yeast fungus such as 

Kluyveromyces fragilis in the case of lactose intolerance, thus extracting the necessary enzyme from the right bacteria may be the simplest remedy for cellulose indigestion (12). Commercial enzyme extraction is not yet feasible, as previously stated. As previously said, firms and financial agencies are considerably more interested in the lucrative biofuel industry, hence this field of human improvement receives little research. As a result, a lot of questions go unasked and unanswered. What effect would the elimination of cellulose weight from stool have on the defecation process, for example? What other consequences could bacteria have on the human body? How do we cope with cellulose hydrolysis’ additional byproducts, such as methane production?

Observation could be used to answer these questions. Other animals have survived for millennia by digesting cellulose with microorganisms, and since humans are mammals, there are no inherent reasons why these creatures cannot coexist with humans. The bacteria that live in the human body already produce gasses in the digestive system, with methane accounting for 10% of the total (3). Methane production was often thought to be a problem on cow ranches and dairy farms, however methane is a highly energetic biogas that may be exploited as a source of energy. It may be difficult to harness it, given that current social norms do not encourage open farts, even if it is for the cause of renewable energy. Certain diets richer in alfalfa and flaxseed, on the other hand, have been shown to minimise methane production in cows, which may be a solution to the problem .

Conclusion

We conclude that Insoluble fiber is mostly obtained from vegetables, which are in short supply in today’s diet. As indicated in the introduction, vegetables include several vitamins, minerals, and soluble fiber, all of which have numerous health advantages. Including these items in our diet once they have been modified to have cellulose-digesting capabilities could assist to alleviate the obesity crisis and improve human health tremendously.

Improving human digestion could, in the end, drastically reduce human waste while also increasing the efficiency of human consumption. To incorporate those particular bacteria into our systems, which are already structurally advantageous for such a shift, we only need to better monitor and comprehend them. We could reduce food consumption by using the energy in previously indigestible cellulose, reduce cellulosic waste by turning it into food, solve food shortages by making algae, grass, straw, and even wood edible, and eventually turn human bodies into a source of renewable energy if microbes are successfully integrated.