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SEOUL: While it only turns into a handsome prince in
fairy tales, the homely bullfrog may harbor a valuable anti-aging
substance for humans, South Korean researchers say.
A team led by Professor Kim
Se-kwon of Pukyong University in Busan said it isolated a peptide
with antioxidant properties from bullfrog skin.
Because of the properties, the
material is useful in removing free radicals—molecules that hasten
the aging process of human cells.
Alpha-tocopherol, also known as
Vitamin E, is traditionally considered as the most active
antioxidant in humans and widely used in medicines and health
supplements.
But its price keeps rising
because of surging world demand.
“The new substance can provide
an economic alternative to tocopherol,” Kim told Agence France-Presse
on Tuesday, referring to another antioxidant. The team’s discovery
was published by Bioresource Technology, an international journal,
last year.
“Because it is water-soluble,
the substance may be consumed in much more diverse ways than the
oil-soluble tocopherol. You may put it in soft drinks, for
example,” he said.
The newly found material is also
10 percent more efficient than tocopherol in curbing oxidization, he
added.
--AFP
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