While it only turns into a handsome prince in fairy tales, the homely bullfrog may harbour a valuable anti-ageing substance for humans, South Korean researchers say.

    A team led by Professor Kim Se-kwon of Pukyong University in Busan says it isolated a peptide with antioxidant properties from bullfrog skin.

    Because of the properties, the material is useful in removing free radicals -- molecules that hasten the ageing process of human cells.

    Alpha-tocopherol, also known as Vitamin E, is traditionally considered as the most active antioxidant in humans and widely used in medicines and health supplements.

    But its price keeps rising because of surging world demand.

    "The new substance can provide an economic alternative to tocopherol," Kim told reporters Tuesday, referring to another antioxidant. The team's discovery was published by Bioresource Technology, an international journal, last year.

    "Because it is water-soluble, the substance may be consumed in much more diverse ways than the oil-soluble tocopherol. You may put it in soft drinks, for example," he said.

    The newly found material is also 10 percent more efficient than tocopherol in curbing oxidisation, he added.

    盡管丑陋的牛蛙只有在童話(huà)故事里才能變身英俊的王子，但韓國(guó)研究人員近日稱(chēng)，牛蛙體內(nèi)可能含有一種能用于人類(lèi)抗衰老的珍貴物質(zhì)。

    釜山釜慶大學(xué)金勝勛教授領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究小組稱(chēng)，他們從牛蛙的皮膚中分離出了一種具有抗氧化特性的生化肽。

    由于這一特性，該物質(zhì)可用于去除自由基——一種加速人體細(xì)胞衰老進(jìn)程的分子。

    “α-生育酚”——也就是我們通常所說(shuō)的“維生素E”，歷來(lái)被認(rèn)為是人體內(nèi)最活躍的抗氧化物質(zhì)，并被廣泛用于各類(lèi)藥品和保健品中。

    但隨著全球市場(chǎng)需求的不斷增加，其價(jià)格也持續(xù)上漲。

    金教授于本周二接受記者采訪(fǎng)時(shí)提到新發(fā)現(xiàn)的抗氧化劑時(shí)說(shuō)“這種新物質(zhì)能夠成為生育酚的經(jīng)濟(jì)替代品。”該研究小組的這一發(fā)現(xiàn)于去年在《生物資源技術(shù)》國(guó)際期刊上發(fā)表。

    金教授介紹說(shuō)：“由于該物質(zhì)具有水溶性，所以它的用途比油溶性的生育酚更加多樣化。比如，你可以在無(wú)醇飲料中添加該物質(zhì)。”

    他還提到，這種新發(fā)現(xiàn)的物質(zhì)的抗氧化功效比生育酚高出10%。