Hops From Beer May fight Cavities and Gum Disease

Hops from beer has just given beer enthusiasts something to talk about.  Most know that hops is what

Part of the Hops discarded in making beer may help prevent tooth decay and gum disease

gives beer its delicious bitter flavor.  Researchers have found a substance in the in the discarded part of hops that contains healthful antioxidants that may be able to battle tooth decay and gum disease. 

A specific laboratory technique known as chromatography identified new and already known compounds in hops.  Yoshihisa Tanaka and colleagues found the antioxidant polyphenols in the leaf extracts.  This extract stopped the bacteria responsible for disease from sticking to surfaces, and prevented the release of some of the bacteria's toxins. 

Since the leaves are not used to make beer, there is a large potential to repurpose it for dental applications.  +Verde Pointe Dental Associates, +Kirk Kimmerling DDS  and +Suzanna Aguilera welcome discussions concerning dentistry and dental applications.

The study was published in the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2014, Comprehensive Separation and Structural Analyses of Polyphenols and Related Compounds from Bracts of Hops (Humulus IupulusL.) Yoshihisa Tanaka, Akio Yanagida, Satoshi Komeya, Miho Kawana, Daiki Honma, Motoyuki Tagashira, Tomomasa Kanda, Yoichi Shibusawa.