While it only turns into a handsome prince in fairy tales, the homely bullfrog may harbour a valuable anti-ageing substance for humans, South Korean researchers say.

    A team led by Professor Kim Se-kwon of Pukyong University in Busan says it isolated a peptide with antioxidant properties from bullfrog skin.

    Because of the properties, the material is useful in removing free radicals -- molecules that hasten the ageing process of human cells.

    Alpha-tocopherol, also known as Vitamin E, is traditionally considered as the most active antioxidant in humans and widely used in medicines and health supplements.

    But its price keeps rising because of surging world demand.

    "The new substance can provide an economic alternative to tocopherol," Kim told reporters Tuesday, referring to another antioxidant. The team's discovery was published by Bioresource Technology, an international journal, last year.

    "Because it is water-soluble, the substance may be consumed in much more diverse ways than the oil-soluble tocopherol. You may put it in soft drinks, for example," he said.

    The newly found material is also 10 percent more efficient than tocopherol in curbing oxidisation, he added.

    盡管丑陋的牛蛙只有在童話故事里才能變身英俊的王子，但韓國研究人員近日稱，牛蛙體內可能含有一種能用于人類抗衰老的珍貴物質。

    釜山釜慶大學金勝勛教授領導的研究小組稱，他們從牛蛙的皮膚中分離出了一種具有抗氧化特性的生化肽。

    由于這一特性，該物質可用于去除自由基——一種加速人體細胞衰老進程的分子。

    “α-生育酚”——也就是我們通常所說的“維生素E”，歷來被認為是人體內最活躍的抗氧化物質，并被廣泛用于各類藥品和保健品中。

    但隨著全球市場需求的不斷增加，其價格也持續上漲。

    金教授于本周二接受記者采訪時提到新發現的抗氧化劑時說“這種新物質能夠成為生育酚的經濟替代品。”該研究小組的這一發現于去年在《生物資源技術》國際期刊上發表。

    金教授介紹說：“由于該物質具有水溶性，所以它的用途比油溶性的生育酚更加多樣化。比如，你可以在無醇飲料中添加該物質。”

    他還提到，這種新發現的物質的抗氧化功效比生育酚高出10%。