Elixir of Life: biomolecules targeted for anti-ageing

摘要

Since time immemorial, the human race has been dabbling in a huge 'trial and error' experiment searching for anti-ageing actives. For generations we have looked for ways of, not just staying younger but of ways to actually achieve immortality. Many millions of materials have been tried. Among the winners are green tea extracts, milks, butters and oils, all of which have their origins going far back beyond the records of ancient Egypt and back to the ancient peoples living in India and China. This long history of safe use almost guarantees efficacy. Why would people insist on using something that does not work? Among the losers we find dangerous materials such as radium 226 and 228 isotopes, which were in a well-known patent tonic sold between 1918 and 1928 or unpleasant materials such as urine. There is an entry in Samuel Pepys diary for Tuesday 8 March 1663 mentions one 17th century approach to beauty that did not stand up to the test of time. He wrote: "Up with some little discontent with my wife upon her saying that she had got and used some puppy-dog water, being put upon it by a desire of my aunt Wight to get some for her, who hath a mind, unknown to her husband, to get some for her ugly face."