Scientists are close to synthesizing healthful hops in hopes that compounds can help create new medicines, according to research being presented at the 251st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society as reported by News Medical.
Hops — the little buds that give beer its bitter kick — are widely studied for their ability to stunt bacterial growth and disease. The ability to synthesize hops could help scientists generate medicines from these compounds without having to extract them from plants.
"When researchers extract healthful chemicals from hops, they first have to determine whether they have separated out the specific compounds they're interested in," said project leader Kristopher Waynant, PhD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Idaho in Moscow, according to News Medical. "But if you can figure out how to make these compounds from scratch, you know they are the right ones."
The compounds that interest Dr. Waynant the most are humulones, which have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. Scientists would like to utilize these properties in treatments to improve health and fight disease. After much trial and error, researchers believe they are closing in on an optimized humulone synthetization process.
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