Antioxidant in beer may be better than soy or citrus
By Penny Stern, MD
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000817/hl/beer_1.html
NEW YORK, August 17, 2000 (Reuters Health) - An antioxidant in beer may
be especially potent, according to researchers at Oregon State
University in Corvallis.
Antioxidants have been linked to protective effects against
atherosclerosis, cancer, aging, inflammation, PARKINSON'S disease and
Alzheimer's disease.
Earlier investigations have suggested that hops, used to brew
beer, contain some potentially useful compounds, as well. Now, Dr.
Donald R. Buhler and colleagues have investigated whether molecules in
beer, called prenylchalcones and prenylflavanones, can act as
antioxidants.
Buhler said his team found that "on a molecule to molecule basis,
xanthohumol, the major prenylchalcone in hops and beer, is a more
powerful antioxidant than alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) or genistein (a
soy antioxidant.)"
And, when xanthohumol is combined with vitamin E, its
"potency...as an antioxidant is markedly increased," Buhler noted.
Sounds promising, you say? The only problem with xanthohumol is
that you'd have to consume some "2,000 liters (of beer) per day'' in
order to ingest the 10 milligrams or so of daily xanthohumol "to get the
effective
concentration for antioxidant activity," Buhler pointed out.
So, at present "drinking beer is not a good way to get the antioxidant
benefit of xanthohumol," Buhler said, "however, it is possible to
increase the xanthohumol content of beer by using hops containing high
concentrations of xanthohumol during the brewing process."
"More practical," perhaps, might be "taking xanthohumol as a
dietary supplement alone or in combination with vitamin E," the
researcher added.
Buhler emphasizes that the team's results "indicate the need for
further study into the potential health benefits of these...flavonoids.
Our encouraging results with xanthohumol suggest that this
prenylchalcone should be further studied for its antioxidant action and
protective effects against (oxygen) damage."
SOURCE: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, September 2000.
Copyright © 2000 Yahoo! Inc., and Reuters Limited.
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Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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