From: Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Sun Dec 09 2001 - 10:24:15 MST
This is the 52'nd update of my fly longevity experiments. All bottles
contain 1/4 tsp citric acid as a standard additive. Recorded average
temperature during the experiment was 25.7 C.
For this experiment I used a newer breeding bottle, that I would
expect to be less infected, as well as have fewer older flies. To no great
surprise control survival was much better than with the last run.
Policosanol is a supplement used in very small doses in humans to
protect against cardiovascular disease. However in aged humans a reduced
cholesterol is associated with a lowered immunity. Although there is no
proof that policosanol has any adverse effect on human immunity at
recommended doses, the current results indicate that overindulging in this
supplement may be counterproductive. A human consuming the fly food in
this experiments would ingest about 200 mg of policosanol per day.
Recommended dosage is 5 to 10 mg/day.
Vanilla proved to be quite toxic, but peppers improved average
survival, presumably due to an antiviral effect. The surprisingly poor
maximum longevity with black pepper I attribute to neurotoxicity. Activity
levels were greatly increased in black pepper exposed flies, and to a much
lower extent with cayenne pepper.
Run #52 Percent Survival on Day
supplement 5 10 16 21 26 31 37 43 50 59
_________________________________________________________
control 88 75 75 75 75 63 44 25 6 0
pepper, cayenne 1/8 tsp 100 92 92 92 83 83 67 58 8 0
pepper, black 1/8 tsp 100 100 100 100 88 82 53 18 0 -
policosanol 6 mg 97 62 43 32 30 27 11 0 - -
stevia 1 packette 95 95 80 55 55 55 45 40 10 0
vannila 1/4 tsp 100 36 7 0 - - - - - -
watercress 1/4 tsp 100 100 93 93 60 60 33 7 0 -
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