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. 2014 Dec 16:2:245.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00245. eCollection 2014.

Pomegranate Juice Enhances Healthy Lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster: An Exploratory Study

Subramani Paranthaman Balasubramani  1 , Jayaram Mohan  2 , Arunita Chatterjee  2 , Esha Patnaik  2 , Subrahmanya Kumar Kukkupuni  1 , Upendra Nongthomba  2 , Padmavathy Venkatasubramanian  3
Affiliations

Pomegranate Juice Enhances Healthy Lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster: An Exploratory Study

Subramani Paranthaman Balasubramani et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Exploring innovative ways to ensure healthy aging of populations is a pre-requisite to contain rising healthcare costs. Scientific research into the principles and practices of traditional medicines can provide new insights and simple solutions to lead a healthy life. Rasayana is a dedicated branch of Ayurveda (an Indian medicine) that deals with methods to increase vitality and delay aging through the use of diet, herbal supplements, and other lifestyle practices. The life-span and health-span enhancing actions of the fruits of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), a well-known Rasayana, were tested on Drosophila melanogaster (fruitfly) model. Supplementation of standard corn meal with 10% (v/v) pomegranate juice (PJ) extended the life-span of male and female flies by 18 and 8%, respectively. When male and female flies were mixed and reared together, there was 19% increase in the longevity of PJ fed flies, as assessed by MSD, the median survival day (24.8). MSD for control and resveratrol (RV) groups was at 20.8 and 23.1 days, respectively. A two-fold enhancement in fecundity, improved resistance to oxidative stress (H2O2 and paraquat induced) and to Candida albicans infection were observed in PJ fed flies. Further, the flies in the PJ fed group were physically active over an extended period of time, as assessed by the climbing assay. PJ thus outperformed both control and RV groups in the life-span and health-span parameters tested. This study provides the scope to explore the potential of PJ as a nutraceutical to improve health span and lifespan in human beings.

Keywords: Drosophila; anti-aging; ayurveda; pomegranate; rasayana.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Life-span extension by different concentrations of pomegranate juice (PJ) in Drosophila (A) male flies and (B) female flies. Ten percent PJ substitution to the media significantly increased (p < 0.00001) the survival of the flies and extended their life-span by 2 days. In both the sexes 0.1, 1, or 5% PJ did not show any enhancement in the survival.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A). Effect of pomegranate juice supplementation on Drosophila longevity. Male and female mixed culture flies were fed with 10% PJ (n = 164) or 200 μM RV (n = 167). A basal medium control (n = 247) was also maintained. Log rank test indicated significant (p < 0.00001) increase in the fly survival by both PJ and RV (Table 1). But PJ increased the median survival by 19.23% while it was 11.05% in the RV group. (B) Effect of 10% pomegranate juice supplementation on Drosophila fecundity at different age. The bars represent the total number of flies enclosed from each group at different age with SD. PJ group showed significant increase in the number of off-springs produced (*p < 0.0001). The graph also indicates an extended reproductively viable phase in the PJ fed flies. No significant difference in fecundity was observed with RV and control groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Gustatory assay with PJ (10%) or RV (200 μM) supplementation in 20 and 40 days old Drosophila flies. (A) Male flies in the PJ and RV group were found to have reduced feed intake when compared to control (*p < 0.05). However, there was no difference in food intake by PJ and RV groups. (B) Female flies did not show any significant difference in the food intake on both the days tested (ns, not significant).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Survival against hydroxyl radical (OH*) produced by hydrogen peroxide exposure in 20 days old Drosophila. Both male (A) and female (B) flies fed with PJ (10%) showed approximately 50% increase in median survival (p < 0.00001) (Table 1). RV (200 μM) fed flies showed only about 30–35% increase in median survival.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Survival against superoxide radical (O*) produced by paraquat exposure in 20 days old Drosophila. (A) PJ (10%) group showed 54% increase in median survival (p < 0.00001) while RV (200 μM) could increase only by 9.6% (Table 1). (B) Female flies fed with PJ showed 45.9% increase in median survival (p < 0.00001) while RV was able to increase the median survival by 32.4%.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Pomegranate protects Drosophila from Candida albicans infection. Twenty days old male (A) and female (B) flies fed with PJ, RV, or control diet were infected with Candida albicans. In both the sexes, flies fed with PJ showed a significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better survival response than the control and RV fed.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Sustained climbing performance of Drosophila flies fed with PJ. (A) Twenty days old male flies did not show any difference in their climbing performance irrespective of feed, but 40 days old PJ fed flies were able to retain their physical performance (p < 0.0001) then the RV and control group. (B) Female flies at both 20 and 40 days showed significantly higher (p < 0.0001) climbing performance then the RV and control group. PJ group was able to resist the age-related physical activity decline observed in the RV and control groups.
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