Nutritional assessment of a Gemmotherapy extract with presumed anti-inflammatory effect

The present study evaluated the nutritional and potential anti-inflammatory effect of a gemmotherapy extract containing blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum), common heather (Calluna vulgaris), common sage (Salvia officinalis), and Saffron (Crocus sativus). The model organism Drosophila melanogaster wm4h strain were cultured in three different types of media, which are zero media (0N), normal media (NM), and high-sugar media (HS) supplemented with varying concentrations of the extract (0.38ml, 0.68ml, 1.35ml, 2.7ml, and 5.4ml). The 0N media evaluated the nutritive properties of the extract, the NM was used for cytotoxicity analysis, and the HS-dietary condition was used to stimulate inflammation. A total of 50 embryos were put into each vial and the number of pupae and adult flies were monitored on a daily basis until no hatching could be found. All the experiments were carried out at least in triplicates at the temperature of 250C and constant humidity. Spectrophotometric measurement of Total Polyphenol (TPC) and Total Flavonoid Content (TFC), and DPPH antioxidant assay were performed. Quantification of red eye pigment of male adult flies and brain dissection of larvae fed on HS were done to investigate the effect of diet and nutrition on the epigenetic regulation. The results of TPC and TFC were 568.83 mg GAE/100 ml and 58.76 mg CE/100 ml, respectively, and showed relatively high antioxidant capacity. 0N media experiments did not support growth of pupae nor hatching of adult flies, which demonstrated that the given extract lacks necessary macro and micro nutrients that are crucial for flies’ development. NM-dietary conditions supplemented with the extract showed no significant difference from the control vials, which means that the extract does not show cytotoxic effect in all tested concentrations. As for the quantification of red eye pigment, flies cultured in NM and HS did not show any significant difference between each other, meaning that more evaluation on the regulation of epigenetics needs to be done. Dissection of brain of 3rd instar larvae fed on HS dietary conditions demonstrated that their brain size and nuclei size are much smaller in comparison to the NM controls, indicating there could be some interference and effect of the HS diet on the brain sizes. The results of both HS fly culture experiments and the brain dissection did not show any rescue effect of the extract. The research concludes that the given gemmotherapy extract possesses no nutritive effects on its own, however, when supplemented with NM does not show cytotoxicity for cells. Further thorough experimental studies are needed for confirmation of its anti-inflammatory effect.