Prune Juice: A Natural Constipation Treatment

By Anson Chang

Many people who have read about treatments of constipation have in high likelihood learned about prunes. The prune is often thought of as a good laxative, largely because of the high proportion of dietary fiber by weight. The thing that most people don't realize is that prune juice alone is an excellent laxative.
The cultivation and exploitation of plums has gone on for hundreds or even thousands of years, according to the best archaeological evidence. Modern prune makers follow an ancient tradition. Plums are plucked and collected in one area where temperature is raised to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In ancient times this was likely done in or near an oven. After drying, the prunes can be further processed to create related products.
The usual understanding for most people is that prunes are good natural laxatives because of their dietary fiber content. How then does prune juice, which has no fiber at all because of filtration, help those who suffer from constipation? The answer is that sorbitol, a polysaccharide sugar substitute, has some wondrous laxative properties.
The content of sorbitol in prune juice is amazingly high. The sugar is a complex polysaccharide, meaning that it's an extended chain of sugar-like molecules. When ingested, it tends to absorb a lot of water and stays in gut. In fact, because it's not absorbed in the same way as glucose, sorbitol is often used as a sweetener that is calorie free.
Pears and sugar free gum are two other things with sorbitol. Of course, the pear has a higher amount and is presumably a good aid for digestion as well. One interesting fact is that dietary fiber has molecular properties that are very similar to sugar and sorbitol. It's no coincidence that all of these laxatives have similar molecular characteristics.
How does sorbitol achieve its anti-constipatory effects? There are two properties, both of which have already been mentioned. The first is that sorbitol tends to absorb a lot of water, the second is that sorbitol isn't metabolized by the body. Together, the effect of sorbitol is to bulk up the colonic mass with a lot of fluids.
The extra water and fluids means that the food mass becomes soft, dense, and thus moves more quickly through the gastrointestinal pathway. There are a number of other laxative agents that behave this way, and they are known as either osmotic or bulk laxatives. Prune juice, fortunately, is one of those things that one may drink anyway for other health benefits. That it's a useful laxative is an added bonus for those interested in this class of treatments.



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