Importance of Medical Effects of Xanthohumol, Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) Bioflavonoid in Restructuring of World Hop Industry

Nowadays, the world hop industry is faced with one of the biggest crisis in the history. Permanent decrease of hopping rates in the world beer industry during last 20 years caused many problems to hop producers all around the world. It resulted in the huge surpluses of hop stocks between years 2008 and 2010, the ages known as “years of famine” for hop farmers. The hop contains some compounds having medical, pharmaceutical or biological activities, and xanthohumol is one of them. Xanthohumol is a bioflavonoid whose positive effect is confirmed both in vitro and in vivo experiments. It is successfully used in medical treatment of patients having diseases such as prostate and breasts cancer, osteoporosis, menopausal problems, and even HIV. However, such attributes of hop are strong argument to consider the restructuring of the world hop industry and forming a new supply chain, primarily oriented to the pharmaceutical industry.