Beer ingredients as a remedy for inflammation and obesity? Researchers around Prof. Dr. Claus Hellerbrand, Institute of Biochemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), received the research award of the European Foundation for Alcohol Research and the European Brewery Convention for their research project investigating beer ingredients for their anti-inflammatory effect."
Anyone who drinks beer lives a hundred years," is an Italian proverb in which there may be more truth than expected. Beer contains the substances xanthohumol and iso-alpha acids. According to studies by Prof. Hellerbrand's group of experts, xanthohumol inhibits fatty liver disease caused by being overweight and malnourished and prevents the liver from scarring. In addition, it kills liver cancer cells and prevents overweight, the weight gain. The iso-alpha acids also have a positive effect on health.
They inhibit liver damage and affect the fat and sugar metabolism positively.In new research, the scientists and the group of Prof. Dr. med. Ina Bergheim, University of Vienna, also found that the two substances favorably influence biological processes especially in the combination. Together, for example, they inhibit inflammation processes even more effectively. Even very low concentrations significantly slow down the production of inflammatory factors in liver and blood cells.
Whether even further disease mechanisms such as diabetes or cancer can be combated more effectively by combining the two substances, will be investigated in the funded research project. Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying this good combinatorial effect are to be decrypted. Xanthohumol belongs to the plant polyphenols - the aromatic compounds that provide the color and taste of the plants. The substance is found exclusively in hops and responsible for the yellow hue of the hop flowers. Hops play an important role in the brewing of beer, but in large parts xanthohumol is broken down.
The beer itself contains only a small proportion of the substance. Another ingredient of the hops are the bitter acids, which cause the typical beer taste. One group of them are the alpha acids, which are converted into iso-alpha acids by heating during the brewing process.Currently, the only way in which xanthohumol and iso-alpha-acids are absorbed by humans is via the consumption of beer, albeit in relatively low concentrations.
Beer is not medicine. The reason: the alcohol content. "However, it is conceivable that the consumption of non-alcoholic beer or other hops-containing foods and drinks such as hops lemonade or hops tea can have a positive effect. Especially for the treatment or prevention of liver damage from obesity, xanthohumol and iso-alpha-acids seem very promising ", explains Hellerbrand.
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