As with many things we eat or drink there tends to be waste ranging including peels, seeds, and yes, coffee grounds.
Spent coffee grounds are a byproduct of the coffee brewing process that will often end up in the trash.
What is in spent coffee grounds
– Carbohydrates ( about 38-42%)
– Proteins (8%)
-Chlorogenic acids (3-4%)
– Melanoidins
Coffee grounds are quickly tossed into the garbage but new research is suggesting possible health benefits to coffee grounds.
Spent coffee grounds have also been found to be a great source of anti-inflammatory compounds.
The way this works is that the bacteria in our GI tract can convert the spent coffee grounds to compounds with health benefits.
Results of this study found:
– Treating liver cells with hydrolyzed spent coffee grounds HSCG completely protected HepG2 cell viability from stress-induced death,
– HSCG significantly reduced overproduction of reactive oxygen species evoked by t-BOOH, suggesting a quenching ability of reactive species in a cellular environment.
How did they make the hydrolyzed spent coffee grounds in this study?
Spent coffee grounds are treated with a hydrochloric acid solution overnight to release the chemical sugar groups from the different phytochemicals.
Air-dried SCG (3 g) were treated with 70 mL of 6 M HCl under stirring at 100 °C overnight. After cooling at room temperature, the mixture was centrifuged (7000 rpm, 4 °C, 30 min) and the precipitate washed with water until neutrality and freeze-dried to give a black powder (ca. 930 mg, 31% yield).
Do you want to see other studies with coffee – click here.
Here is what the authors of the study had to say:
Therefore, all of these results indicate that the gut microbiota effectively ferments hydrolyzed spent coffee grounds, releasing both short chain fatty acids and antioxidant compounds, behaving as dietetic fiber as known prebiotics, such as inulin. It is known that spent coffee grounds are a rich source of galactomannans and arabinogalactans, whose beneficial effects on large bowel function, including promotion of growth of bifidobacteria as well as production of short chain fatty acids, have been amply documented.
And
The antioxidant activity observed for HSCG-ferm would indicate that the gut microbiota has a strong metabolic activity against HSCG, releasing antioxidant compounds that could be absorbed through the colonic intestinal tract.
Read about a clinical trial that tested caffeine for improving sprint performance.
Take away message:
Spent coffee grounds are the residue left over after coffee has been brewed. To make the ‘hydrolyzed’ spent coffee grounds are treated with an acid overnight to release the chemical sugar group from the different phytochemicals.
The antioxidant protection from hydrolyzed spent coffee grounds likely is from phytochemicals in coffee as well as from bacteria that convert the phytochemicals into new anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds.
Likely the health benefits of spent coffee grounds are real, however, it may take some time before you actually see these as a dietary supplement on the store shelves.
Reference: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2017 July
His research on plant medicine has led to more than 45 publications and abstracts.This research has been presented at international meetings in the USA, France, Turkey, Peru, Israel, Austria, and Italy.
Categories: Plant Medicine
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