How an ibuprofen-like chemical was discovered in olive oil
Plus saving the world's most popular banana, redesigning life to make it alien, synchronized heartbeats during storytime, Ebola, scorpions, Alzheimer's disease, and metabolism in midlife
Millions of people use olive oil. It's one of my favorite oils for drizzling over food, putting in salads, and used in cooking. But there was one scientist who made a spectacular discovery because he was able to make a connection with chemistry after tasting olive oil.
If you've tasted the good stuff- extra-virgin olive oil- you know it is heavenly and rather pungent. There's also a characteristic bitterness and dryness that you feel in the back of your throat. Some olive oil can make you cough. All of these are due to chemicals known as phenolics.
One of the attendees at a workshop on molecular gastronomy in Sicily in 1999 was Gary Beauchamp- director of one of the leading institutes on chemistry of senses. He tasted fine olive oil and felt his throat burn like everyone else. But it led him on a path to making a discovery.
Beauchamp had been trying to make ibuprofen- a painkiller and fever reducer belonging to a class of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs for short)- palatable in kids’ cough syrups. Ibuprofen had the exact same irritating effect on the throat that olive oil did.
Many years later, Beauchamp recalled that eureka moment- "I saw the whole picture in my head. There’s a natural analogue of ibuprofen in olive oil, and it could have anti-inflammatory properties, too.” Then came the hard part of isolating the compound and finding its properties.
Collaborating with a leading organic chemist (who happened to be next-door at UPenn) , he isolated the compound and called it oleocanthal. The chemist also synthesized the chemical in the lab. They wrote it up and published a one-page letter in Nature in 2005.
One line from the paper is particularly striking. "Our findings raise the possibility that long-term consumption of oleocanthal may help to protect against some diseases by virtue of its ibuprofen-like COX-inhibiting activity."
For years, scientists have known that the Mediterranean diet promotes cardiovascular and gut health and longevity. Olive oil is a key ingredient in cuisines of the Mediterranean. Could it play a part? Many scientists are trying to tease out effects of phenolics in olive oil.
Oleocanthal has strong anti-inflammatory activity. It has been synthesized chemically and is being investigated for potential preventive effects on cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's. Other phenolics in olive oil may also have health effects.
Can the world’s most popular banana be saved?
The world's most popular banana is under threat of being wiped out. Can it be saved? The culprit is a fungus called Tropical Race 4, also known as "banana COVID". This is the subject of my latest column in Hindustan Times. Skip to read the full text.
The Cavendish is the Robin Singh of bananas- it is a utility fruit that does the job. It is neither the tastiest nor the hardiest. Yet, in much of the world, most people have not tasted any other kind of banana. It's the banana that you find in stores in Europe and North America.
I've been all over the world and the best bananas come from India. So many varieties and they're all incredibly delicious (even if they don't ship well).
Everyone is always fetishizing Indian mangoes, but bananas are the fruit that the world actually eats a lot of. And good bananas- I mean really tasty ones- are nearly impossible to find in the U.S. India is the largest producer, but most bananas are for domestic consumption.
Unfortunately, Indian farmers are also now susceptible to Tropical Race 4, because 60% of bananas grown in India are also now Cavendish (under different names). We need to grow more varieties of indigenous bananas for food security, taste, health, and economic benefits.
When you listen to stories with others, your heartbeats synchronize.
This is pretty incredible new research. When listeners pay close attention to stories, their heart rates synchronize. In the future, we might be able to use changes in heart rates to determine how closely someone is listening in class, or whether a movie or ad film truly resonates.
Imagine you’re sitting in class and your smartwatch detects that you’re not paying attention from your pulse. It gives you a mild shock to wake you up and sends an alert to your teacher.
When attacked, some scorpions lose their stinger…
…and their anus.
They keep eating and the wastes pile up until they are explosively expelled out of their tail segments. They live for another eight months or so after that.
Humans are long-term reservoirs of Ebola.
Ebola remained latent in a patient and was reactivated after five years. Humans can now be considered long-term reservoirs of this deadly disease.
This is concerning because previously such a long period of latency had not been observed for Ebola. Each outbreak was thought to be due to a different spillover event (presumably from bats).
Redesigning life!
Could a virus from space infect us? Does life have to be similar elsewhere? What exactly IS life? Scientists are redesigning life. They’re discovering designed “alien” life is stranger than anything else that came up naturally on Earth.
I have started to write a monthly newsletter for the good folks at The Morning Context. And I have to tell you that the first one is awesome. Check it out. It’s free to read, if you sign up (which you should).
Must-watch video:
Accidental discoveries that changed the world. A good friend made this video a few years ago and it is awesome.
What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
This is a superb podcast episode that talks about how scientists typically excluded all other theories on the genesis of Alzheimer’s disease in favor of one called the amyloid hypothesis (which is on shaky ground now).
Incidentally, this podcast episode dropped just after I was looking into the topic for a column I was writing on the possible link between COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s.
Does metabolism slow in midlife?
Not according to new research.
This whole idea that metabolism slows down in— take your pick… late twenties, thirties, forties— is now revealed to be incorrect. Energy expenditure remains the same from 20-60 claims a new paper in Science. This might be textbook changing work.
On the origin of artificial sweeteners.
Every single major artificial sweetener came about because a chemist put something in his mouth that he wasn't supposed to. I am not kidding.
1897: A Johns Hopkins University researcher was making coal tar derivatives. He forgot to wash his hands before lunch and tasted something sweet on his fingers. And the world got saccharin.
1937: A student at the University of Illinois was making a fever-reducing drug. During a cigarette break he tasted something sweet on his fingers. And the world got cyclamate.
1965: A research chemist at G.D. Searle and Company, licked his fingers while developing a new ulcer drug. Yes, it was sweet too. And the world got aspartame.
1976: A chemist, Shashikant Phadnis' was told to "test" a compound. He heard it as instructions to "taste". He tasted the sucrose derivative and found it sweet (about 600 times sweeter than sugar). And the world got sucralose.
And on that note, I will sign off Stay well. We are nearing the two-year mark of the outbreak in Wuhan. I will cover some COVID-related topics soon.