Two natural compounds—one in apple peel and one in green tomatoes—may fight the effects of aging on muscles.
Elderly mice fed the compounds saw a 10 percent increase in muscle mass and 30 percent increase in strength.
“Many of us know from our own experiences that muscle weakness and atrophy are big problems as we become older,” said Christopher Adams, professor of internal medicine in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and senior study author. “These problems have a major impact on our quality of life and health.”
Previously, Adams and his team had identified ursolic acid, which is found in apple peel, and tomatidine, which comes from green tomatoes, as small molecules that can prevent acute muscle wasting caused by starvation and inactivity. Those studies set the stage for testing whether ursolic acid and tomatidine might be effective in blocking the largest cause of muscle weakness and atrophy: aging.
In their latest study, Adams’s team found that ursolic acid and tomatidine dramatically reduce age-related muscle weakness and atrophy in mice. Elderly mice with age-related muscle weakness and atrophy were fed diets lacking or containing either 0.27 percent ursolic acid, or 0.05 percent tomatidine for two months.
