Beer Component Battles Dental Diseases

Hops lend beer its bitterness and aroma.  Hops leaves (bracts), discarded in the beer brewing process, are a newly identified substantial source of proanthocyanidins – potent antioxidants. Yoshihisa Tanaka, from Tokyo University (Japan), and colleagues utilized the laboratory technique of chromatography to analyze bracts, and found three new compounds: one already-known compound that was identified for the first time in plants and 20 already-known compounds that were found for the first time in hops.  Building upon their earlier research that identified that antioxidant polyphenols contained in the bracts could help fight cavities and gum disease, the researchers revealed that these bract extracts stopped the bacteria responsible for these dental conditions from being able to stick to surfaces and prevented the release of some bacterial toxins.