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From The June 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News
The Fruit Fly: A Short, Sweet Life
by Bill Sardi
The short life span of the fruit fly makes it ideal for longevity studies. Researchers exposed fruit flies to the herbicide paraquat as an endogenous source of superoxide anion, which rapidly increased mortality. In a subsequent test, the flies received a diet enriched with high superoxide-scavenging (SOS) antioxidants such as glutathione, catechin, and/or epicatechin. Although the antioxidants didn't prevent the paraquat toxicity, they increased the survival rates of the fruit flies by 20 to 30 percent.1
References
1. Kim SJ, et al. Effect of glutathione, catechin, and epicatechin on the survival of Drosophila melanogaster under paraquat treatment. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 1997 Feb;61:225-9.
Bill Sardi, a health journalist in Diamond Bar, Calif., is the author of The Iron Time Bomb (Bill Sardi, 1999).
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