Plant and fruit compounds show promise in fighting infections and improving gut health, with new extraction techniques enhancing their effects. Researchers from Brazil and Germany have investigated how phytochemicals from papaya, passion fruit, and various medicinal plant extracts work at the molecular level. Their findings were presented during FAPESP Week in Germany, highlighting potential health benefits and therapeutic applications.
Fruits and plant extracts are rich in bioactive compounds that may help prevent or treat various diseases. To better understand how these compounds work, researchers from universities and institutions in Brazil and Germany have conducted separate but complementary studies.
Some of their findings were presented on March 25 during a lecture session on the future of food and nutrition research, held at the Free University of Berlin as part of FAPESP Week Germany.
Ulrich Dobrindt, a professor at the University of Munich, explained that medicinal plants contain diverse phytochemicals, naturally occurring chemical compounds, that can combat bacterial infections through different mechanisms. These compounds help strengthen the body’s immune response. As a result, there is growing interest in using plant extracts to prevent and treat urinary tract infections (UTIs), one of the most common infections globally, which are typically treated with antibiotics.
“Although their anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic effects are well known, the active compounds of these plants – such as flavonoids, alkaloids and terpenoids – and their mechanisms of action on pathogen cells have yet to be characterized. Some are antibacterial, but many don’t have this effect,” said the researcher. The table was attended by Bernadette de Melo Franco, Hans-Ulrich Humpf, Ulrich Dobrint, João Paulo Fabi and Peter Eisner. Credit: Elton Alisson/Agência FAPESP In order to further their understanding, German scientists have developed infection models to study the effects of plant extracts on the innate immune response and on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression (biochemical processes that activate and deactivate genes). In bladder cells, for example, they are studying the effect of traditional plants with urological activity, according to the German pharmacopoeia.
In collaboration with researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil, it was found that some aqueous plant […]
Papaya and Passion Fruit Show Unexpected Cancer-Fighting Potential
