Beloved,
I wish above all things that thou mayest ....be in health...
3 John 1:2
"Scientists studying 228 varieties of modern Chinese wheat have discovered that flavonoids found in wheatgrass can neutralize harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) and also increase the lifespan of fruit flies. The effect was dependent on both dosage and the sex of the flies.
To assess bioactivity, flavonoid extracts from wheatgrass (FEW) were fed to Drosophila melanogaster, resulting in dose-dependent and male-specific lifespan extension at 1 mM concentration. Transcriptomic analysis of JA-treated seedlings revealed significant upregulation of key genes in the phenylpropanoid-flavonoid pathway (PAL, C4H, 4CL, CHS), validated by qRT-PCR, and JA treatment boosted both flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity by ~30%.
This integrated research highlights wheatgrass as a rich and underutilized source of health-promoting flavonoids and suggests practical strategies—such as cultivar selection and JA elicitation—to enhance its nutritional value.
This study paves the way for enhancing the nutritional value of wheatgrass-based products. With demonstrated lifespan-extending effects and superior antioxidant activity, FEW holds promise for use in functional foods targeting aging and oxidative stress-related diseases. However, gender-specific effects observed in fruit flies suggest the need for further dose optimization.
(a) Comparison of the antioxidant activity of wheat flavonoids with vitamin C using the DPPH method.
(b) The contents of flavonoids in grains and wheatgrass on the accessions. Data represent the mean ± standard error. The student’s t-test determined the p-value (hereafter).
(c) The phylogenetic relationships of bred history. Ovals represent breeding parents, rectangles represent bred cultivars, and related cultivars are linked by black lines. Ellipse color and variety size deepen and increase with breeding usage.
(d) The distribution of the wheat accessions. The size of the circle indicates the number of cultivars.
(e) The ancestral information of accessions. The yellow bar chart on the left indicates the number of genes associated with each trait. The black circle and line indicate the overlap groups and the corresponding bar chart shows intersecting gene numbers." SciTechDaily
