Limonene, a natural compound present in lemons and oranges can help in early-stage diagnosis of liver disease. The study was published in the journal EBioMedicine.
According to researchers in the Molecular Physics Group at the University of Birmingham, liver disease has risen over the past decades due to over consumption of alcohol in the UK. Symptoms do not show up until it reaches the advanced stage.
The team collected breath samples using a breath sampling protocol from cirrhosis patients and the controls. The breath samples were then put into a highly sensitive analytical instrument that measures the intensities of aroma molecules.
Researchers compared the Breath samples of a group of 31 patients suffering from cirrhosis with a healthy control group. Then pre-transplant samples of the liver disease sufferers were compared with a sub-cohort of 11 patients who went on to have a liver transplant.
The limonene levels were higher in patients before the transplant surgery. But after getting a new liver by transplantation, the limonene levels were found to be reduced in these patients. The results showed that cirrhosis patients were not able to metabolize limonene fully instead it was stored in their body fat.
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