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Tokyo – In Japan, the bitter leaves of the Ashitaba plant have long been considered healthy, and a new study has been established.
A natural substance in the plant appears to induce a key process that badists the removal of "cellular garbage" that can build up a cell and cause a range of diseases and disorders.
"It's always nice to find a scientific rationale for traditional medical folk tales," said Frank Madeo, a professor at the University of Graz's Institute of Molecular Biosciences, in Austria.
Madeo, who helped lead the research, said the known substance as 4,4'-dimethoxychalcone or DMC, which occurs naturally in Ashitaba plants, a process called autophagy.
"This is a cleansing and recycling process," he told AFP. It removes "superfluous material, especially cellular garbage like aggregated proteins."
That "cleaning" process is key to good health. When cells fail to promptly and efficiently, they can build up and lead to diseases including cancer. There are already a handful of compounds known to scientists that work to stimulate the cleaning process. Fasting also appears to naturally encourage cells to undertake spring cleaning. But, the team of researchers has turned to a clbad of substances called flavonoids.
Many flavonoids have already been shown to have a range of beneficial effects, ranging from anti-inflammatory properties to protecting against brain degeneration and cancer.
The team reasoned that they could find flavonoids that could also help prevent destructive aging in cells.
They screened 180 compounds representing various subcategories of flavonoids, looking for candidates that might have the natural ability to "counteract age-related cell demise."
After initial screening, they settled on DMC and started testing the substance affected yeast cells.
They have been found to be more effective than others in the past, and they have been shown to be more effective than other compounds when they .
The team then tested DMC's effect on cells in both worms and fruit flies
"Remarkably, chronic DMC treatment … prolonged the median lifespan of both model organism by approximately 20 percent," the study published Wednesday in the Nature Communications Journal says.
Additional tests shown in the field of protection against cancer by ethanol intoxication.
The team also tested DMC's effect on several types of human cells and found that the substance worked to slow aging.
"The experiments indicate that the effects of DMC may be transferable to humans," said Madeo.
The research is still in the early stages and the effects of DMC are likely to increase in the future.
"Eventually, clinical trials on humans are needed," he added. – AFP
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