In a Korean supermarket checkout area, I spotted a tub of gum making an unusual promise. Lotte’s I’m Control Banaba (아임 컨트롤 바나바) says it may help 식후 혈당상승 억제—limit the rise in blood sugar after eating. That is a lot of responsibility to give a piece of gum.
First, banaba (바나바) is not banana (바나나). Banaba is a tropical tree whose leaves contain compounds such as corosolic acid (코로솔산). The tub says it contains 0.7% banaba leaf extract powder. Lotte says each piece supplies 0.15 mg of corosolic acid. Its suggested routine is one piece before or after each of three meals, for 0.45 mg a day. (lotternd.com)
What is it supposed to do? Blood sugar normally rises after a meal as the body digests carbohydrates. Banaba leaf extract is marketed as helping limit that rise. Small human studies of banaba extracts or corosolic acid have reported promising results, but those results do not show that this particular gum prevents diabetes or reliably lowers everyone’s blood sugar. It is an interesting functional gum, not a replacement for diabetes treatment. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The wording on the package is useful Korean, too. 도움을 줄 수 있다 means “may help.” It expresses a possibility, not a guarantee. 식후 means “after a meal”—a word you may also hear when a pharmacist explains when to take medicine.
Vocabulary
- 껌 (kkeom) chewing gum
- 식후 (sikhu) after a meal
- 혈당 (hyeol-dang) blood sugar
- 상승 (sangseung) rise, increase
- 바나바잎추출물 (banaba-ip chuchulmul) banaba leaf extract
