Ceratonia siliqua L . A Promising Functional Food for Chronicle Diseases Related to Gastrointestinal System: Diabetes, and Lactose Intolerance

: The present study contributes to the promotion of a tree widely cultivated in the Mediterranean area, especially in our country Algeria; the carob tree “ Ceratonia siliqua L.”; by a bibliographic mini review which lists the chemical, nutritional, biochemical, biological, and biotechnological properties of carob and its by-products expressed by the evaluation of its activities: antioxidant, anticancer, anti-hyper-lipidemic, anti-diabetic, anti-reflux, anti-diarrheal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer and enzymatic, noted in the literature for few years. The presence of the main primary and secondary metabolites: polyphenols, fibers and sugars; give these products very interesting properties and benefits for human health by making it dietetic product and a raw material of choice in food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, in this perspective we developed in our laboratory a Ceratonia siliqua L. fruit aqueous extract based vegetal milk as a functional food for chronicle diseases related to digestive disorder: diabetes, and lactose intolerance.


Introduction
Ceratonia siliqua L. belongs to legumes' family, it is widly cultivated in Mediterranean region, where it is considered as a natural component of biodiversity and a famous local product, used by local population since ancient times for alimentation as well as traditional remedy.According to FAOSTAT 2019 statistics it is cultivated on 80,000 hectares for a world production of 160,000 t/year, with varying production yields depending on cultivars, soils, climates and agri-parctices.It is also beneficial to the local agricultural economy since it is a drought-and temperature-tolerant plant [1,2].
Last decades, scientific researches focus on tree parts application especially biological and biotechnological ones [3,11], as its bioactive components could be very interesting for functional foods industry, food supplements, nutraceuticals..., mostly because it is usually conceded as by-products.
In this context, the present mini review aims to promote renewable local bioresouces for an agriculture based on responsible and sustainable Eco-economy.

Experiments
Intensive and rigors researches using several national and international references (articles, books, reviews in Electronic databases: MDPI, Science Direct, Springer, ACS, RS, Pub Med, Pub Chem., Google Scholar...) were performed since 1981 until our days, to  study evolution of scientific research on Ceratonia siliqua L. in time, and how it performs in regard of varying fields: ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, Chemistry, Nutrition, Biological and Biotechnogical applications in order to extract maximum informations concerning investigated plant.

Results and Discussion
According to our review, scientific researches are generally increasing for example we identified 872 Articles for 2000 and 620 Articles for 2010, highlighting by the way growing interest, currency and relevance of studied plant.Obtained results, lead to enumerate achievements and lacks which could be interesting to investigate in the future.

Origin and Geographic Distribution
De Candolle (1883) and Vavilov (1951) reported carob tree origin to Turkey and Syria region, while Schweinfurth (1894) reported it to Yemen region.Nowadays it is extended around Mediterranean region from Spain and Morocco to Turkey [12,13], and is introduced in many other countries: USA, Australia, Argentina, India... [14].
It is grow in holm oak stand in association with Olea europea et Pistacia lentiscus [15], and is restant to salent poor soils, and sub-arid climate [16,19] which make it a natural green fence against soils degradation, erosion and desertification [18,20].

Traditional Use
Several ethnopharmalogical surveys reported carob tree among most cited plants by herbalist and local informant for nutritional value and treating gastro-intestinal system diseases [21,24].

Food Industry
Carob pod pulp is used as cattle feed in addition to barley floor [25,26].Carob flour obtained by grinding terrified dried pods after shelled, is widely used in dietary food industry due to its high content in sugars, free gluten and phenols which is recommended for oeucolic persons [17,[27][28], it is also used in preparation of milk flour [29][30][31], drinks, citric acid, jams, sirup, honey [13,15,32] as substitute of cacao in chocolate and biscuits [29].
Seeds tires is used as substitute of pectin, gelatin, stabilizer, fixer in several products such as cheese, sauces, mayonnaise; it is also used as thickening E410 in candy production [33].

Cosmetology
Due to its capacity to form viscous solutions at low concentrations, its thinking, emulsifier and stabilizing proprieties [14,34,35]; it is used as natural adjuvant in soaps, creams, toothpaste... [36].

Aticancer Activity
Polyphenols and fibers are offently reported as cancer inhibitors especially colorectal one which is negatively correlated to a rich fiber diet [54].Consequently, carob fibers are potent agents in cancers prevention [55].

Antihyper Lipidic Activity
According to Valero-Munoz (2014-2017) studies, carob fibers are active in the treatment of blood lipid troubles due to the high quantity of insoluble fibers: cellulose and hemicelluloses and/or polyphenols in carob fibers [57].
Carob gum as soluble fiber has the potent to lower plasmatic blood cholesterol value [57].Moreover, Carob fibers hypocholesterol agent derivative was patented [58].

Antidiabetic Activity
In vitro studies reported Carob gum as a blood glicemian reductor [59].

Conclusions
The present bibliographic mini review on carob tree and its organic derivatives (pods, pulp, seeds, flowers, leaves), exhibits its richness in several primary (fibers, hydrocarbs) and secondary metabolites (phenols, Gallic acids, catechins, quercetin, tannins...) which content and profile depend on plant studied part, soil, climate, cultivar, extraction

Publisher' s
Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).