Researchers in the UK have discovered that a substance in the skins of red fruits, such as grapes and plums, could help asthma sufferers.
A paper by the team of researchers from Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital, published in the American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, found that a substance called resveratrol could help with illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) - and could also have uses in treating arthritis.
Resveratrol is found in the skins of red fruits such as grapes and plums, the red skin of peanuts and peanut butter. The team discovered that it has a unique anti-inflammatory action, helping reduce the inflammation in the lungs that causes asthma and COPD.
Louise Donnelly said: "This research could be very good news for asthma and COPD sufferers because resveratrol could prove more effective than current steroid treatments. In particular, resveratrol seems not to have any of the side-effects of steroids, which may make it safer for long-term use."
The scientists studied the effects of resveratrol in human airway cells and found it acted as an anti-inflammatory in all the systems they examined. In was able to switch off inflammation under conditions where steroids are not effective.
The researchers also suggest that by understanding how resveratrol works in the cell it may be possible to design more powerful drugs for dealing with inflammatory diseases from asthma to arthritis.
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