Study Finds New Coffee Compounds that Could Help Fight Diabetes

Researchers in China say they’ve found six previously unknown compounds in roasted and brewed coffee. In lab testing, three of those compounds outperformed a commonly used diabetes drug in inhibiting a key enzyme linked to type 2 diabetes.

The work, led by scientists at the Kunming Institute of Botany within the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is less about telling people to drink more coffee and more about giving food chemists a faster way to hunt for potentially useful bioactive compounds hiding in complex foods like roasted coffee.

“Functional foods offer more than basic nutrition,” the study’s publisher, Maximum Academic Press, said in an announcement of the findings. “Many contain naturally occurring molecules that may support health, including compounds with antioxidant, neuroprotective or glucose-lowering effects.”

In the study, the team isolated and identified three new diterpene esters from roasted arabica coffee beans and named them caffaldehydes A-C. In vitro testing showed that the three compounds were more effective than a prescription glucose inhibitor used to treat type 2 diabetes by slowing down carbohydrate digestion to prevent blood sugar spikes.  

To be clear, this was not a human study. Thus, the practical effect these new coffee compounds may have on the body remains unknown, according to the authors.

Beyond identifying new chemical compounds that naturally exist in roasted coffee, the paper advocates a scientific method to more quickly identify bioactive compounds in complex foods.

Roasted coffee is notoriously complex, and diterpenes in particular are tied to coffee oils. Previous research has suggested diterpenes in roasted and brewed coffee may indeed be associated with type 2 diabetes prevention and management.  

“The findings suggest new opportunities to develop coffee-based functional foods or nutraceuticals that support glucose control and may help manage diabetes,” the publisher wrote. “Beyond coffee, the same low-solvent, high-precision screening approach could be applied to other complex food sources to rapidly uncover health-related compounds.”

The full study was published in the journal Beverage Plant Research.

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