Technologies

In the last years, hop culture has spread throughout Italy, and the vegetative biomass disposal, after harvesting of cones, used for beer production, became a serious problem for hop growers. Hop plant contains in all parts, cones, shoots, leaves and roots, bioactive compounds, with proven and important antiviral, antibacterial and antioxidant properties.

We have identified compounds that show a neuroprotective action in vivo, in models of neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. SMA, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Huntington) in the model organism C. elegans. These compounds consist of: mixtures of 22 natural extracts, 15 natural molecules and 11 synthetic molecules.

Environmental contamination is a prominent topic. Where the exposure to contaminants such as heavy metals (HMs) or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is greater, the incidence of chronic degenerative diseases, such as oncologic, is increased. Scientific evidence reports that some phytochemicals are able to interact with HMs and PAHs by interfering with their cellular metabolism, inhibiting their cytotoxic mechanisms or helping to reduce tissue concentrations.