Hops - cancer inhibitor?

[Brewinfo]

I was recently informed hops have certain flavonoids that have cancer-inhibiting properties. Do these properties survive the brewing process?

[Øl-sheik]

The flavonoid you are looking for is Xanthohumol and yes, when in the hops it will reach the final product, in germany it is possible to buy Xanthohumol extracts ( pm me for info) to add to the beer and yes if you just drink about 20 liter you will take in sufficient amounts, that might help again cancer. Well at least in a lab the substance was successfully used to reduce cancer in mice cells.

cheers to another marketing trick

[Øl-sheik]

for more info check out

http://www.asbcnet.org/journal/abstracts/1998/1204-02a.htm

[crassbrauer]

Xanthohumol

Xanthohumol survives best in beers which are unfiltered - even better if they're dry-hopped, so your local brewpub's IPA or Dry Stout would be the best place to find beers which have it. Unfortunately, most filtered and packaged beers don't contain enough of this stuff to do much good; you'd kill your liver before you'd get enough to fight cancer.

Weihenstephan sells a Weissbier as well as an alcohol-free malt-based "health beverage", both of which are rich in Xanthohumol.

Apparently Xanthohumol has much more cancer-fighting potential than Resveratrol, the much-celebrated polyphenolic phytoalexin in red wine. The concentration of Resveratrol in red wine is much higher than the Xanthohumol content in most beers. However, if compared to a dry-hopped IPA, which should contain more Xanthohumol than pretty much any style of beer, red wine has a lot more alcohol, and since the negative effects from alcohol increase more or less exponentially with increasing alcohol content, a pint of dry-hopped IPA should be a more healthy alternative for the health conscious drinker than a glass of red wine.

The brewing industry should be making this known to the public. Vintners have certainly ridden the heart-healthy and cancer-fighting waves with red wine.