Can This Chinese Fruit Curb Aging? New Study Offers Clues

A Chinese fruit, jujube, has been shown to prolong the lifespans of a type of nematode known as Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans, according to new research.

Jujube is known for its health benefits and has been used in Chinese food and medicine for thousands of years. Jujube helps calm down the mind and improve sleep quality, as documented in herbal medicine. But the fruit's role in the aging process remains unclear.

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A study published by Springer Nature, a publisher of peer-reviewed scientific and academic journals, on Friday found that the lifespan of C. elegans "significantly increased" when treated with Jujubae fructus.

The study titled, "Jujubae Fructus extract prolongs lifespan and improves stress tolerance in Caenorhabditis elegans dependent on DAF-16/SOD-3", reported that Jujubae fructus treatment "prolonged the reproductive period and increased normal activity during aging in C. elegans" and that Jujubae fructus supplementation "enhanced the resistance to heat and oxidative stress in C. elegans."

While the testing was on nematodes and not humans, the researchers who conducted the study said that it "makes up for the gap in the impact of Jujubae Fructus on the lifespan of C. elegans and provides a certain basis for the relative studies on humans."

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C. elegans share 60 to 80 percent of human genes and 40 percent of human disease-related genes, according to various scientific studies.

The authors of the study talked about the importance of anti-aging research in the introduction of their report.

"Considering an explosive increase of senior citizens suffering from a number of chronic disorders, which could result in a tremendous social and economic burden, it is imperative to concentrate our collective efforts on developing novel remedies in order to decelerate senile changes and deter the inevitable physical alternations from advancing to the formidable ailments," they wrote.

The researchers are affiliated with multiple Chinese institutions: Xinxiang Medical University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhoukou Normal University, and China Agricultural University.

Dr. Nir Barzilai, a professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who is also the president of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, shared his reservations about the study to Newsweek.

"I would just say that from a scientific point of view, it's a great study that may be insightful for human health. Nematodes have been revealing but, for example, the models used here include pathways (like causing insulin resistance) which cause longevity in nematodes but shortevity ... in humans," he said in an email on Friday.

Barzilai continued, "The point is that these studies have to go to mammalians (mice or rats) and then tested in humans. Much of what we used in the past from data like that has ended not being true for humans."

Update 06/14/24 3:33 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.