Scientists have found a special ingredient in this fruit
A team of Swiss researchers led by Johan Ouver of Lausanne Federal Polytechnic has discovered that one of the ingredients in pomegranate has unique beneficial properties. Thanks to this component, the body begins to produce urolithin A, which is capable of strengthening muscles, slowing down aging and significantly prolonging life - in any case, the results of experiments on laboratory mice and worms testify in favor of this assumption, experts say.
At one stage of their study, the scientists injected urolithin A into Caenorhabiditis elegans roundworms, after which the nematodes lived 45 percent longer than the worms from the "control group." Inspired by their success, the researchers conducted a similar experiment with mice and found that aged rodents, which were injected with urolithin A, were 42 percent more resilient when running than others.
In the future, experts hope to conduct tests that would test the applicability of the findings to humans. The researchers emphasize that "ready-made" urolithin A was injected into worms and mice, and it is not contained in the pomegranate. Nevertheless, when eating pomegranate in food, a person receives the necessary substances, from which urolithin A is synthesized directly in the body.
According to the researchers, urolithin A promotes the process of removing damaged mitochondria and creating new ones. Mitochondria are sometimes called "power plants of cells", and their insufficient number or poor-quality work is fraught with, among other things, weakening of muscles and acceleration of the aging process. This, according to the researchers, explains the benefits of pomegranates.
Experts note that the component necessary for the body to produce urolithin A is also found in some berries and nuts, but in much smaller quantities than in pomegranate.
Nematode worms are often used by scientists as a model organism in the study of the processes associated with aging. This is partly due to the fact that these organisms reach "old" age in a little more than a week, and the accompanying processes can be observed in them very clearly. In particular, recently, it was in the course of experiments on roundworms that scientists found out that the taste and smell of food accelerates aging, and another group of researchers even said that they were able to determine a list of substances on the basis of which a life-prolonging drug could be created.
Dmitry Istrov
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