Recently my paper featuring an almost bizarre idea was peer reviewed and published in the Medical Hypotheses Journal by Elsevier. I would like to take a moment and post some highlights on my research and explain in basic terms why the idea is plausible.
When a grapevine for example gets attacked from say an animal or a mechanical attack the vine starts producing various defenses. The reason they don’t simply produce these defenses nonstop is because it would require way too much energy from the plant.
Plants also respond differently based on the type of attack they are experiencing. In addition, the response time varies as well.
The plant sends these specialized chemicals to the area of the attack.
In an Article in the New Phytologist Feb 2008 H. J. De Boeck (Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen) points out that the way we study plants can be a problem as you might be dealing with an “observer effect” type problem, whereas you cannot properly know what is really going on in the plant. We already know for example that Pterostilbene is normally not found in wine yet Pterostilbene is found in grapes. One must wonder what other molecules within plants we are missing out on simply because of the “observer effect” that causes its destruction, this might include simply the removal of the fruit / leaves from the plant.
Another things to consider is what the exact shoot to root relationship is within the grapevine when it comes to the plant defenses. In my paper I mention the 1942 discovery by Dawson that showed that nicotine was synthesized in the roots of the tobacco plant, Nicotiana. Prior to that many thought you can harvest the plant, and elicit the nicotine after that. Nicotine is a chemical produced by the Nicotiana plant as a defense.
Many studies have been done that show that plants respond differently to different types of animal saliva. One study showed that 3-O-glucosyl-resveratrol was significantly stimulated in V. vinifera (common grapevine) when they applied the saliva of Manduca sexta larvae.
The question is how would V. vinifera respond when human saliva is used as an elicitor, especially pre-harvest?
So what would happen if:
You walked up to a grape vine in a vineyard (with permission) and you first elicited a leaf and or grapes by biting into them and leaving them on the plant. Your saliva surely would get the plant to start producing known and possibly unknown plant defenses. This process can take some time to reach its peak, given there are no tests (with human saliva pre-harvest) we don’t know if this time is an hour, 2 hours etc. Now when that time comes, you return and consume off the very area you damaged (leaf and or berries), you make sure to consume plenty and not allow much air at all to enter your mouth. In my paper I talk about one idea of maximizing delivery via the oral mucosa.
Obviously we have been told that one needs 1000’s of bottles of wine to see any results from Resveratrol. However over the past few years that number became less and less, in addition study after study showed a very powerful effect when one combines resveratrol and pterostilbene for example.
For all we know, using the proper method of consumption is really the way to harvest all the molecules us humans need to see the real effects that are hidden within the vine.
I ask this not be shared on general health forms as I would hate to give anyone in desperate need of a cure any hope that has not had any testing. This is just an idea, and I believe all ideas should be shared and discussed and if possible tested. We have discovered more bizarre phenomenon in the universe than the idea I presented.
I am attaching my paper here so you can review the idea in detail. You will also see why many including David Sinclair did not discount the idea, even thou on the surface it seems ridiculous.
At this stage I am hoping someone from this community can suggest a way to test this or maybe even this this concept and report back. Linus Pauling Institute told me they can test this properly, however at the moment I do not have the resources to work with them.