On Preventing AGE Formation
AGEs are bad news - a component of the biomolecular damage that causes aging, an ongoing buildup of compounds your body cannot break down rapidly enough, or at all in some cases. A branch of science, not as robust as we'd all like, focuses on how to break down AGEs, but there is always another approach: suppress their formation in the first place. At Ouroboros: "report that silks from several modern corn strains are capable of inhibiting nonenzymatic glycation in vitro, with the activity strongest in varieties bred to resist specific types of fungal infection. The mechanism of inhibition is not clear or even a ready subject for idle speculation (if you will, take a moment and bend your head around how one might specifically inhibit an uncatalyzed, non-specific reaction that can occur between a broad range of molecules); nor is it not obvious whether the phenolic compounds in the silk extracts could be made bioavailable without extensive modification. Still, once the chemistry of inhibition is elucidated, the silk-derived molecules could provide inspiration for therapeutics capable of stopping AGEs before they start."
Link: http://ouroboros.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/your-people-call-it-corn-my-people-call-it-maize/