Dietary intake of Curcuma longa and Emblica officinalis increases life span in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Intake of food and nutrition plays a major role in affecting aging process and longevity. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the ageing process are still unclear. To this respect, diet has been considered to be a determinant of ageing process. In order to better illustrate this, we used Drosophila melanogaster as a model and fed them orally with different concentrations of two commonly used Indian medicinal plant products, Curcuma longa (rhizome) and Emblica officinalis (fruit). The results revealed significant increase in life span of Drosophila flies on exposure to both the plant products, more efficiently by C. Longa than by E. officinalis. In order to understand whether the increase in lifespan was due to high-antioxidant properties of these medicinal plants, we performed enzymatic assays to assess the SOD and catalase activities in case of both treated and control Drosophila flies. Interestingly, the results support the free radical theory of aging as both these plant derivatives show high reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activities.

Figure 1

(a) Survival curve for both control and exposed Drosophila flies. (b) Mean ± SE and maximum life span days in control and experimental Drosophila flies.

Figure 2

(a) Native PAGE of control and experimental samples showing differential expression of SOD. (b) % inhibition of the rate of increase of absorbance at 560 nm due to reduction of NBT by superoxide radical. A strong inhibition corresponds to increased activity of SOD. (c) Graph showing catalase activity as U/mg of different samples. (d) Body weight of single Drosophila fly at regular interval of 10 days in control and treated conditions.