Mice study: Corn flavonoids act as anti-inflammatory against IBD – NutraIngredients.com

IBD, such as Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic intestinal inflammatory condition with a growing number of cases worldwide and awaiting safe and effective preventive strategies. Naturally occurring flavonoid compounds are promising therapeutic candidates against IBD due to their great antioxidant potential and ability to reduce inflammation and leaky gut syndrome.
Coloured maize rich in flavonoid and carotenoid compounds are thought to confer better health benefit than conventional maize. Maize plants carrying a functional p1 gene accumulate flavan-4-ols in the pericarp; flavan-4-ols later polymerize into condensed phlobaphenes. Biochemical analyses have shown that phlobaphenes-containing maize possess higher antioxidant capacity than conventional maize.
For the current study, Penn State researchers bred a novel line of corn to produce compounds called flavan-4-ols by obtaining seeds for an inbred corn line and for a corn genetic stock containing genes required for the flavonoid pathway. After back-crossing the plants, the resulting hybrid possessed a higher antioxidant capacity than conventional lines.
The scientists induced mice with IBD syndrome and divided them into four groups. One group was fed a standard, diet, the second and third groups’ diets were supplemented with corn containing flavan-4-ols at 15% and 25% and the fourth group was fed a diet supplemented with a genetically related corn that did not contain the flavonoids.
The study, recently published in Nutrients, reports that mice consuming a corn-based diet with flavan-4-ols exhibited alleviated IBD-like symptoms resulting from the protective effect of flavonoids against colonic inflammation by restoring intestinal barrier function.

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