Apple peel extract slows down the aging process

"One apple a day, doctor away from you" is a familiar health proverb. However, the best way to eat apples is to eat them with skins. According to the latest issue of
, U.S. researchers have found that a combination of dassatin, a leukemia drug, and quercetin, an extract from apple peel, can extend the lifespan of older mice by 36 percent.
cells usually appear in the body in their 60s, and earlier in obese or chronically ill people. These abnormal cells are in decline, but they are not willing to die. It is thought that aging cells themselves catalys the aging process.
led by James Kirkland of the Mayo Clinic in the United States, proves that this is the case. When the researchers injected 6-month-old mice with small amounts of senescing cells, their speed, endurance and strength dropped by 20 to 50 percent in a few weeks, about the same level as typical 2-year-old mice.
to block the effects of senescing cells, the team chose a combination of dassarin and quercetin, both of which interfere with the way senescies avoid death. When the team gave the combined drugs to young mice that were aging as a result of injecting aging cells, the lost physical capacity of the mice recovered 50 to 100 percent in two weeks.
When the team gave the drug to older mice between the ages of 24 and 27 months, their speed, endurance and strength increased by 30 to 100 percent, and their remaining lifespan was 36 percent longer than that of older mice who were not given the drug. (Source: Science and Technology Daily Feng Weidong)