lupin conglutin gamma is preferred , either as a substantially pure protein or as a lupin protein mixture or extract containing said conglutin gamma . substantially pure means a concentration typically higher than 80 % by weight , preferably higher than 90 %. conglutin gamma can be obtained according to the process schematized in fig3 . according to said process , lupins are crushed , kernels are dehulled and flaked , which are then deoiled by extraction with solvents . after that , deoiled flakes are subjected to an extraction process a under acidic conditions to obtain raffinate a and acidic extract a , which in turn are subjected to further treatments . b ) two subsequent extractions of raffinate a under slightly alkaline conditions , to obtain raffinate b , which is discarded , and extract b ; c ) precipitation of the proteins from extract b by treatment with acids ; d ) fractionation of the proteins , elimination of the solid proteins and clarification of the supernatant ( sp ) which is used at a later step . at the same time , starting from acidic extract a resulting from the acid extraction process a , the following steps are carried out : e ) clarification of extract a to obtain clarified extract ( aep ); f1 ) ultra - filtration of aep to obtain f1 - retentate ; f2 ) diafiltration of the mixture resulting by combining sp and f1 - retentate , to obtain retentate dfp and f2 - permeate ( which is discarded ); g ) pasteurization and spray - drying of dfp to obtain ncgp ( native conglutin gamma ). the results of the pharmacological experimentation carried out with conglutin gamma are reported in the following . the hypoglycemizing activity of lupin conglutin gamma was tested in rats compared with metformin ( reference standard ). male cd strain rats , of the starting weight 275 - 300 g , were used . the animals were housed in makrolon cages in environment with automatic control of light ( 12 hour light / 12 hour darkness cycles ), temperature ( 21 ± 1 ° c .) and humidity ( 60 ± 5 %). lupin conglutin gamma prepared as reported in example 2 was used . 100 rats ( divided into in 5 groups of 30 animals each ) were pre - treated ( time − 30 min ) with : group 1 : carrier ( 1 % carboxymethylcellulose [ cmc ]; 2 ml / kg os ) group 2 : lupin conglutin gamma ( 50 mg / kg os in 1 % cmc ) group 3 : lupin conglutin gamma ( 100 mg / kg os in 1 % cmc ) group 4 : lupin conglutin gamma ( 200 mg / kg os in 1 % cmc ) group 5 : metformin ( 50 mg / kg os in 1 % cmc ) all rats were subsequently treated ( time 0 min ) orally with glucose ( 2 g / kg ) to increase glucose plasma levels . immediately before the glucose administration ( time 0 min ) and 30 , 60 and 90 min after the glucose administration , all the animals ( n = 5 rats for each time ) were anaesthetized with sodium thiopental ( 50 mg / kg i . p .) and 5 ml of blood was drawn from the vena cava . blood samples were collected in syringes containing edta ( 7 . 5 mm ) as anticoagulant , and immediately subjected to centrifugation ( 2000 g × 10 min at 4 ° c .) to obtain the plasma necessary for the enzymatic quantitation of glucose . the quantitation of the glucose in rat plasma was carried out in triplicate by enzymatic assay ( absorbance at 505 nm ) and the glucose concentration was expressed in mg / dl . more precisely , an enzymatic kit ( glucose - trinder from sigma aldrich , cat . 315 - 500 ) containing all the reagents necessary for the trinder reaction ( glucose - oxidase method ) was used . furthermore , both the spectrophotometer calibration and the reading quality on the different plasma samples were validated by standard reagents from sigma - aldrich ( calibrator , cat . a - 2539 ; accutrol normal , cat . a - 2034 ; accutrol abnormal , cat . a - 3034 ). lupin conglutin gamma of example 2 was used . metformin , carboxymethyl cellulose and the various kits for glucose quantitation , for quality control and for calibrating the apparatus were purchased from sigma - aldrich ( milan , italy ). all the values reported in the tables are expressed as mean ± mean standard error ( m . s . e ). statistical analysis between group 1 carrier - treated rats ) and groups 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 ( animals treated with lupin conglutin gamma at different concentrations or with metformin ) was carried out on the areas under the curve values ( fig2 ), first by variance analysis ( one way ) and subsequently by the dunnett &# 39 ; s test ( two tails ) with multiple comparison . differences were considerate significant when p & lt ; 0 . 05 . the oral administration of 2 g / kg of glucose increased glucose plasma levels by 2 . 7 times ( 85 ± 6 at 232 ± 18 mg / dl ; p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) in control rats ( carrier ). said increase reached its peak 30 min after glucose administration , then it gradually decreased in a time of 90 min ( fig1 ). pre - treatment rats with the lupin conglutin gamma , administered 30 min before the glucose at doses of 50 , 100 and 200 mg / kg os , induced a significant , dose - dependent reduction the increase in glucose plasma levels ( fig1 and 2 ). more particularly , considering the area under the curve ( auc ) values reported in fig2 , the effect obtained with 200 mg / kg os of lupin conglutin gamma ( auc = 2090 ± 238 ) was comparable to and not significantly different from that observed in group 5 ( animals pre - treated with 50 mg / kg os of metformin ) ( auc = 1565 ± 201 ). the obtained results clearly show that pre - treatment of rats with lupin conglutin gamma significantly reduces the increase in glucose plasma levels resulting from oral administration of glucose 2 g / kg . approximately 4 . 500 kg of lupins were crushed and hulls were separated from kernels , thus obtaining 3 . 440 kg of kernels and 1 . 060 kg of hulls . crushed kernels were flaked in a roller mill , whose rolls were kept at a temperature below 40 ° c . to prevent protein denaturation . yellow disk - shaped flakes were obtained , having bulk density of 300 to 330 kg / m 3 . batches of 500 kg of flakes from step a ) were filled up to 2 m height in a vertical pipe of 900 mm diameter and deoiled by percolation with hexane . the extraction procedure was repeated 4 times and consisted of : 1 ) percolation of white hexane until 500 l of mixture had been recovered in the tank , 2 ) recirculation of the mixture for 15 min , 3 ) drain off of the liquid portion for 15 min in steps 1 to 3 and for 30 min in the final extraction step . hexane still present in deoiled flakes was removed under vacuum ( 250 mbars ) with stirring for 150 min , to the hexane final content was 250 ppm , which was subsequently reduced to 50 ppm though air blowing . approx . 430 kg of white flakes was obtained . 185 kg of white flakes were suspended in 1 . 800 ml of cold acidic water at ph 4 . 5 - 4 . 8 and at a temperature from 13 . 5 to 15 . 2 ° c ., with mechanical stirring adjusted to 55 rpm , and extracted for 1 hour . approximately 23 . 6 l of 3m hcl were used to keep ph acidic throughout the extraction . 385 kg of raffinate a and 1 . 600 l of acidic extract a were obtained by centrifugation . b ) separation of the protein extract from the raffinate under slightly alkaline conditions in a first step , 385 kg of raffinate a were extracted with 900 l of water at ph 7 . 2 - 7 . 4 and at 28 . 2 to 31 . 5 ° c ., with mechanical stirring at 60 rpm , for 1 hour . the solution was added with 50 ml of anti - foaming agent struktol sb 2010 . approximately 19 . 6 l of 3m naoh were used to keep ph alkaline throughout the extraction . approximately 945 l of protein extract were separated from the raffinate by centrifugation . in a second step , the raffinate obtained by centrifugation was extracted with 540 l of water at ph 7 . 3 - 7 . 4 and at a temperature of 29 . 0 to 32 . 0 ° c . for 15 min . 0 . 3 l of 3m naoh were used to keep ph alkaline throughout the extraction . approx . 595 l of protein extract ii and 242 kg of raffinate b were obtained . protein extracts i and ii were combined to obtain 1 . 450 l of protein extract b . c ) precipitation of proteins from the protein extract under acidic conditions protein extract b ( 1 . 540 l ) was added with 16 l of 3m hcl to adjust ph to 4 . 6 - 4 . 5 and with 50 ml of the above anti - foaming agent , with mechanical stirring at 85 rpm . proteins precipitated at the iso - electric point ( ph 4 . 5 ). the protein dispersion from step c ) ( approx . 1 . 550 l ) having solids content ranging from 11 . 0 to 11 . 5 vol %, was separated with a disc - type separator at 6 . 830 rpm . solids content in the resulting clarified extract was 0 . 0 to 0 . 1 vol %. approximately 1 . 330 l of clarified supernatant ( sp ) and 213 l of sludge were separated . the dry matter content of the clarified supernatant was 0 . 4 - 0 . 5 % and dry matter contained 70 % total proteins . acidic extract a ( 1 . 600 l ) from the acidic extraction a , having dry matter content ranging from 2 to 2 . 5 vol %, was clarified using a disc - type separator at 7 . 500 rpm . the solids content in the resulting clarified extract was from 0 . 1 to 0 . 15 vol %. approx . 1 . 500 l of clarified extract ( aep ) and 100 l of sludge were separated . the solids content in the clarified extract ( aep ) was 2 . 2 - 2 . 5 %, and dry matter contained 25 % total proteins . 700 l of aep were adjusted from ph 4 . 5 to ph 6 . 0 - 7 . 0 and concentrated through membrane ultra - filtration at 3 bars pressure and 40 ° c . until the final volume had been reduced by a factor of 10 compared with the starting volume . the dry matter content of f1 - retentate was approx . 7 %, and dry matter contained 50 % total proteins . f1 - permeate was discarded . 233 l of clarified supernatant ( sp ) from step d ) were added step - by - step to f1 - retentate , and the mixture was recirculated in the membrane until its volume had been reduced to that of the starting retentate . after the final dilution step , recirculation was continued until the dry matter content in the diafiltered retentate ( dfp ) had reached a maximum level , which ranged from 14 . 5 to 15 . 0 %, and dry matter contained approx . 84 % total proteins . f2 - permeate was discarded . the diafiltered retentate ( dfp ) was adjusted from ph 6 . 5 to approx . ph 5 . 2 , heated to 40 - 65 ° c . in a heat exchanger consisting of a jacketed pipe with 6 mm inner diameter and fed into a spray dryer . the air inlet temperature was adjusted to 195 ° c . and dfp feeding rate was 8 to 10 l per hour . the dry powder was separated from the air stream using a cyclone separator . the dry matter content ranged from 94 . 0 to 95 . 2 %. approximately 4 . 5 kg of native conglutin gamma ( ncgp ) was obtained from 40 l of dfp . conglutin gamma prepared according to this process contains 84 . 7 % proteins , 0 . 6 % oil and 6 . 4 % dry matter . dry matter contains a calculated amount of 8 . 3 % nitrogen free substances ( nfe ). nitrogen solubility index of ncgp at ph 7 in 1 % aqueous solution is 72 . 5 %. according to the present invention , conglutin gamma will be administered orally , either alone or in combination with other substances with useful or complementary activity , formulated as tablets , capsules , granules , powders , syrups and the like . the pharmaceutical formulations can be prepared with conventional procedures , using ingredients known in the technique , such as excipients , ligands , disintegrants , lubricants , stabilizing agents , and the like . dosage may vary , according to the symptoms , weight of the patient , severity of the disease and the like . in case of an adult human patient , the total daily dosage of lupin conglutin gamma will range from 150 to 750 mg , preferably from 50 to 250 , in a single dose or in multiple doses , for example one to three times a day .
a method for the use of lupin conglutin gamma or of proteins showing homology higher than 50 % with lupin conglutin gamma , for the preparation of a medicament , food supplements or foods for the treatment of type ii diabetes , pharmaceutical and nutritional compositions containing lupin conglutin gamma , and the use of lupin conglutin gamma as therapeutical agent , in particular as hypoglycemizing agent . lupin conglutin gamma may be used in pure form or in form of extracts , mixtures or concentrates .