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Tomato to help alleviate IBD?

28/03/2018

François-Xavier Branthôme
Spain,
WPTC
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More than 2.2 million Europeans and 1.5 million Americans suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), for which there is to date no known cure. Polyphenols, a family of secondary metabolites derived from plants, could turn out to be a viable therapeutic strategy for the treatment of some of the symptoms of these affections. According to a study carried out by the Institute of Food Production Science of the National Research Council (ISPA-CNR, units of Lecce), in collaboration with Cathie Martin and Eugenio Butelli from the John Innes Centre (Norwich), and with Marcello Chieppa of the « S. De Bellis » IRCCS at Castellana Grotte (Bari Province), it seems that a suitable combination of polyphenols could relieve the symptoms of intestinal inflammation. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

"Fruit and vegetables are polyphenol-rich foods, but in order to obtain a combination that is satisfactory in terms of quality and quantity by means of dietary intake, it would be necessary to consume a very wide variety of them and in very large quantities", explained Angelo Santino (ISPA-CNR), the study coordinator. 
 
"In a lab, we were able to use metabolic engineering to obtain a line of tomatoes, which we called "bronze" for the metallic and tan color of its skin, containing a unique combination of polyphenols. These notably include flavonols, anthocyanins and stilbenoids, whose synergistic effect has been studied on mice suffering from chronic inflammatory bowel disease."
"The results obtained from in vivo tests clearly demonstrate that this combination of polyphenols is likely to relieve the symptoms of bowel inflammation," explained Aurelia Scarano, of the ISPA-CNR. "Among the beneficial effects observed, we detected an improvement in the composition of intestinal flora, along with an increase in the number of positive lactobacillales and a decrease in the secretion of inflammatory factors in both blood and faeces." "It is interesting to note that the beneficial effects of one single "bronze" tomato on intestinal inflammation are comparable to those of 5 kg of red grapes, known to have a high content of polyphenols," concluded Giovanna Giovinazzo (ISPA-CNR).

Source: cnr.it, lescienze.it, freshplaza.it