Sorghum and Brain Health

Edited and approved by Stephen C. Rose, PhD, MS

Sorghum is not the first grain most people think of when they hear about brain health. Oats, blueberries, olive oil, and leafy greens usually get more attention. But sorghum, especially darker pigmented varieties, is starting to interest researchers because it contains a rich mix of plant polyphenols—compounds that can influence oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolism, and cell signaling.

That matters because Alzheimer’s disease is not driven by one simple process. Amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles are central features, but oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, vascular health, and metabolic dysfunction also shape disease risk and progression. New anti-amyloid antibody therapies have changed the treatment landscape for some people with early Alzheimer’s disease, but they are not broad dietary solutions and are used only in selected patients with early-stage, amyloid-confirmed disease [1,2].

This is where diet enters the conversation. Diet cannot be treated as a stand-alone cure for neurodegenerative disease, but long-term eating patterns may influence risk biology. In a large UK Biobank cohort, higher intake of flavonoid-rich foods was associated with lower dementia risk, especially among people with higher genetic risk, hypertension, or depressive symptoms [3]. Clinical trial evidence for polyphenol supplementation is more mixed. A 2026 meta-analysis of randomized trials across neurodegenerative diseases found modest benefits for some outcomes, especially global cognition with flavonoids and daily function with stilbenes, but effects were not consistent across all polyphenol subclasses or biomarkers [4].

Sorghum is interesting because it is a gluten-free cereal grain with a phytochemical profile that differs from many common grains. Pigmented sorghum varieties can contain phenolic acids, flavonoids, condensed tannins, and 3-deoxyanthocyanidins, with the bran layer carrying much of the polyphenol load [5,6]. These compounds are not unique magic bullets, but they are biologically relevant because several are known to interact with oxidative and inflammatory pathways that also appear in neurodegenerative disease biology.

The most direct sorghum-and-Alzheimer’s evidence is still preclinical. In a 2024 cellular study, polyphenol-rich extracts from several sorghum varieties reduced amyloid-beta aggregation, improved cell survival after amyloid-beta exposure, and reduced oxidative stress markers in human neuroblastoma cells. The effects varied by sorghum variety and dose, which is important: “sorghum” is not one uniform biological product [7].

The same study also looked beyond simple antioxidant activity. RNA sequencing and computational analyses suggested that sorghum polyphenol extracts may influence MAPK/NF-κB inflammatory signaling and ferroptosis-related pathways, both of which are relevant to oxidative-stress biology and cell death. This does not prove that sorghum can slow Alzheimer’s disease in people. It does suggest that sorghum polyphenols may act on several disease-relevant pathways at once in controlled laboratory models [8].

One major practical question is whether these compounds become available to the body after eating sorghum. A 2024 in vitro digestion and Caco-2 intestinal transport study found that simulated digestion changed the phenolic profile of processed sorghum and increased bioaccessibility for some black sorghum samples. Some compounds were detected after intestinal transport modeling, but the authors also emphasized that human intervention studies are still needed [9].

The bottom line is promising but early. Sorghum polyphenols have shown anti-amyloid, antioxidant, mitochondrial, and inflammatory-pathway effects in laboratory models related to Alzheimer’s disease. Human evidence supports the broader idea that polyphenol-rich diets may be associated with better cognitive outcomes, but no clinical trial has shown that sorghum prevents, treats, or slows Alzheimer’s disease in people.

For now, sorghum belongs in the food conversation, not the medication cabinet. Whole-grain, pigmented sorghum may be a useful addition to a brain-supportive eating pattern that already emphasizes plants, whole grains, legumes, nuts, berries, olive oil, fish, and metabolic health. The science is good enough to justify more research. It is not yet strong enough to justify disease-treatment claims.

References

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Converts Novel Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment to Traditional Approval. FDA, 2023. 

2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Approves Treatment for Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease. FDA, 2024. 

3. Jennings, A.; Thompson, A.S.; Tressera-Rimbau, A.; O’Neill, J.K.; Hill, C.; Bondonno, N.P.; Kühn, T.; Cassidy, A. Flavonoid-Rich Foods, Dementia Risk, and Interactions with Genetic Risk, Hypertension, and Depression. JAMA Netw. Open 2024, 7, e2434136. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.34136. 

4. Wang, X.; Yang, J.; Zhang, J.; Yu, G.; Zhu, J.; Nie, Y. Polyphenol Consumption and Neurodegeneration Risk: A Systematic Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Bridging Nutrition and Cognitive Health. Food Funct. 2026, 17, 1114–1126. doi:10.1039/D5FO05135E. 

5. Girard, A.L.; Awika, J.M. Sorghum Polyphenols and Other Bioactive Components as Functional and Health Promoting Food Ingredients. J. Cereal Sci. 2018, 84, 112–124. 

6. Rezaee, N.; Fernando, W.M.A.D.B.; Hone, E.; Sohrabi, H.R.; Johnson, S.K.; Gunzburg, S.; Martins, R.N. Potential of Sorghum Polyphenols to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review Article. Front. Aging Neurosci. 2021, 13, 729949. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2021.729949. 

7. Rezaee, N.; Hone, E.; Sohrabi, H.R.; Johnson, S.; Zhong, L.; Chatur, P.; Gunzburg, S.; Martins, R.N.; Fernando, W.M.A.D.B. Sorghum Grain Polyphenolic Extracts Demonstrate Neuroprotective Effects Related to Alzheimer’s Disease in Cellular Assays. Foods 2024, 13, 1716. doi:10.3390/foods13111716. 

8. Abdulraheem, R.A.; Martins, R.N.; Krishnamoorthy, R.; Alshuniaber, M.A.; Bharadwaj, P.; Li, Z.; Coorey, R.; Jayasena, V.; Johnson, S.K.; Fernando, W.M.A.D.B. Neuroprotective Effects of Sorghum Polyphenol in Alzheimer’s Disease: In Vitro and In Silico Analyses. Nutrients 2026, 18, 2121. doi:10.3390/nu18132121. 

9. Collins, A.; Francis, N.; Chinkwo, K.; Santhakumar, A.B.; Blanchard, C. Effect of In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion on the Polyphenol Bioaccessibility and Bioavailability of Processed Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench). Molecules 2024, 29, 5229. doi:10.3390/molecules29225229.