’Purple Corn’ New Treatment for Diabetes and Kidney Disease?

Diabetic Diet Might Include ‘Purple Corn’ In the Future

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

Purple corn has been discovered as a potential new treatment option for those who have type 2 diabetes and kidney disease. Scientists from Korea’s Hallym University Department of Food and Nutrition and Department of Biochemistry investigated the cellular and molecular activity of purple corn anthocyanins (PCA) to determine how it affects the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN).

Nephropathy is a scientific term meaning damage or disease of the kidney and anthocyanin’s are pigments that are responsible for the colour of a plant or vegetables. These pigments also tend to have health benefits or are used as dietary antioxidants and in this case purple corn. The findings from the study suggest that PCA inhibits pathways of the development of DN, which may lead to new discoveries in the development of therapies for treating type 2 diabetes and kidney disease. The study was published in the American Journal of Physiology.

Purple corn is typically grown in Peru and Chile and is similar to blue corn. The kernels of purple corn has been used in regions where they are locally grown to colour foods and beverages and have been more recently utilized for research purposes to link health benefits.