**2.4 Health benefits**

In the pharmaceutical industry, pectin has been used both for its health benefits and as an excipient. Pectin as an active agent was formerly used in diarrhea mixtures, in conjunction with kaolin and sometimes bismuth compounds, and in wound dusting powders and ulcer dressings where pectin appears to have some specific activity in promoting healing [25]. It has been found to have certain health benefits such as reducing cancer development, lowering blood cholesterol and blood glucose level through the different domains of the pectin structure, and stimulating the immune response [51–55].
