Is Coffee Good For You? New Painkiller Lasting Longer Than Morphine Found In Coffee Proteins

Coffee has been found by researchers from a Brazilian university and a state-run agricultural firm to contain proteins that have a painkiller effect similar to morphine but one that lasts longer.

While analyzing the coffee genome sequence and corresponding proteins, researchers at the University of Brasilia and Brazilian agriculture research company Embrapa found proteins similar to those typical for humans. They then synthesized their structural analogues and tested their properties.

The researchers "identified previously unknown fragments of protein — peptides — in coffee that have an effect similar to morphine, in other words they have an analgesic and sedative activity," an Embrapa press release said

Both the University of Brasilia and Embrapa applied for patents to the Brazilian government for the seven proteins they called "opioid peptides" they discovered.

Those peptides "have a positive differential: their effects last longer in experiments with laboratory mice," the press release read. The effect lasted up to four hours with no side effects reported.

The agricultural and livestock research company believes their discovery has great "biotechnological potential" for the health food industry.

The discovery could also be used to help decrease stress in animals at slaughterhouses.

Embrapa managed to determine the sequence of coffee's functional genome in 2004. This helped researchers mix coffee genes in their goal to improve the quality of coffee grains.

The development comes as prices of coffee beans saw an increase last year amid the decrease in prices of the world's most popular energy sources, namely oil and gas.

Coffee's price tag went up by 49 percent by October 2014, reaching $2.29 per round, based on data from financial visualization service FinViz.

The price hike was blamed on the record droughts in Brazil – the world's biggest coffee-growing country – in eight decades. Another factor blamed for the increase is the fungus affecting harvest in Central America.