X-Message-Number: 14632 Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 08:47:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Skrecky <> Subject: 31'st update on fly longevity experiments This is the 31'st update on my fly longevity experiments. In Run #30 I have a second look at Rooibos tea, after getting a positive result in Run# 29. I also look at red grape juice, since in Run #14 longevity was slightly higher in flies fed grape punch, as opposed to some other fruit juices. Finally I yet again look at blueberry juice. Despite my high expectations, canned blueberry juice yielded no benefit in Run #22. I decided to check the juice from frozen blueberries this time, hoping for a hit. Unfortunately I made a silly mistake in setting up Run #30, which virtually destroyed the usefullness of the results. Instead of using my regular 5 tablespoons of fluid added to 20 mg fly food, I added 6 tablespoons. The surprising consequence of this mistake was the presence of condensation inside the milk bottles housing flies given rooibos tea, as well (formerly frozen) blueberry juice. The surface tension of dew drops can be deadly to flies, which drown very easily. Since only the control, canned blueberry juice, and grape juice bottles had no condensation, only in these bottles was a fair test given. Note: One of the rooibos tea bottles used tea that had been boiled for 20 minutes, rather than just steeped. Boiling did appear to reduce survival. Run #30 Percent Survival on Day supplement 4 9 14 19 23 35 41 47 53 _____________________________________________________________ control 86 81 81 71 48 10 0 - - blueberry (canned) 94 89 78 67 56 11 6 0 - blueberry (frozen) 63 63 31 25 25 0 - - - grape - red 96 89 81 59 48 15 7 4 4 rooibos 0.5 bag/cup 94 58 45 19 3 3 0 - - rooibos 1 bag/cup 94 65 61 16 6 0 - - - rooibos 1 bag/cup (boiled) 70 45 45 20 10 0 - - - rooibos 2 bag/cup 97 76 59 35 12 0 - - - I also continued my cryobiology experiment, testing the effect of pynogenol on fly freezing resistance. If pynogenol does not exert any direct effect on freezing damage, then if it improved survival after frozen storage, it would do so by other short term beneficial actions. These might include suppression of freeze radical activity associated with reperfusion damage, and inhibition of blood clotting. Before the experiment I hypothesized that if pynogenol did not directly reduce freezing damage, any improvement in survival it should accrue only for short storage periods, where freezing damage is as yet not severe. With longer storage where there is zero survival of control flies, pynogenol fed flies should also have zero survival. This is exactly what happened. One interesting observation was that the first census a couple of hours after the first 90 minute period of freezer storage yielded very poor survival, as evidenced by detection of movement. I did not expect the great increase in survival, when a second census 3 days later was performed. Although I had expected all the flies to be dead by then, many flies particularly in the pynogenol 300 mg bottle had sprung miraculously back to life. Freezer Run #3 Percent Survival After supplement 0 90 (2'nd census) 180 minutes ___________________________________________________ control 100 0 5 0 pynogenol 300 mg 100 19 44 0 pynogenol 600 mg 96 12 15 0 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14632