Fungi Reduces Grapefruit Juice, Medication Interaction

BELTSVILLE, Md.Certain fungi can prevent compounds in grapefruits from interfering with some prescription medicines, according to new research from scientists at Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Grapefruit contains furanocomarins (FCs), which inhibit the enzymatic activity responsible for metabolizing certain prescribed medications and allowing more of the medication to enter the bloodstream.

Researchers began the study using a fungusAspergillus nigerto bind and break down FCs in grapefruit juice. Grapefruit juice contains three main FCs. The team found that A. niger either bound these FCs or enzymatically broke them down into other products. Enzymatic inactivation of these compounds may be a means of eliminating them from commercial grapefruit juice, and work to identify these enzymes in A. niger is in progress. A. niger is one of the most common species of the genus Aspergillus that can cause black mold on certain fruits and vegetables but often doesnt cause human disease.

In studies, they found that edible mushrooms such as morels, oyster and button mushroomswhen dried, pulverized and added to grapefruit juicealso removed FCs. That provides researchers with evidence that fungal proteins could be responsible for removing the FCs from the grapefruit juice.