Fame at last 582Your crunchy nut cornflakes were probably stuck together with tons of sugar, June. My friend, an...
Salmonella + fried eggsThere is a good reason for that - fresh eggs are bacteriostatic so don't need refrigeration, they inhibit growth naturally. However when they get older then bacteria can begin to...
On Tue, 14 Mar 2006, Phil C.
Right, i've dug out a review 1 on this. Apparently, what's going on is that something in the grapefruit juice inhibits a couple of proteins in the cells lining your gut which are responsible for keeping nasty foreign chemicals out of your system (specifically, P-glycoprotein, which pumps them out of the cells, back into the gut, and cytochrome P450 3A4, which degrades those left in the cell).
With those proteins knocked out, drugs have a far easier time getting into your system, which can effectively lead to an end. The effects are pretty big - for felodipine, a calcium channel antagonist like Phil's, the level in the blood is up to four times normal, and it seems you can get the full effect by drinking just one glbutt of juice once a day!
The active 'something' is apparently a family of compounds rejoicing in the name of furanocoumarins, which can be found in other citrus fruits too - indeed, in the case of one of them, 5-geranyloxypsoralen, the level in lime juice is four times that in grapefruit juice. That compound is also known as bergamottin, which suggests to me it might be found in bergamot oranges too (oil from which is used to flavour Earl Grey tea - although i haven't seen any mention of there being any furanocoumarins in that).
Fame at last 583Fair enough - and lucky you. But try going at the height of summer when the staff are completely overwhelmed by the numbers of...
So now you know.
tom
Food-drug interaction: grapefruit juice augments drug bioavailability; mechanism, extent and relevance - A. Dahan & H. Altman (Jan 2004); Eur J Clin Nutrit 58(1):1 doi:10.1038-sj.ejcn.1601736
-- The RAMAN VESSEL enters the SOLAR SYSTEM. The explorers explore it, and it is COOL. Then they LEAVE. Then the Raman vessel LEAVES. -- Book-A-Minute SF-F
