Pomegranate Antioxidants may be extremely beneficial for cardiovascular health

Juice was first made and removed from Pomegranate. The remaining fruit constituents were tested for protective activity in laboratory animals. The results were simply sensational. The size of atherosclerotic lesions was decreased by up to 57% (clogging and hardening of the large blood vessels). The peroxidation of lipids in cells was decreased by up to 42% (the creation of rancidity). Glutathione levels increased by up to 53%. The Pomegranate antioxidants left over after the juicing process decreased the actual development of atherosclerotic heart disease significantly compared to animals on placebo. The Activity of the Pomegranate was measured in Gallic Acid equivalents. The main source of Gallic Acid in Pomegranate is Ellagic Acid. The research was performed in the Lipid Research Laboratory, Rambam Medical Center, Israel, and is published in the March 8th, 2006 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Commentary by Jerry Hickey, R.Ph.

Studies show it is not the caffeine which helps decrease the risk of developing diabetes but probably the polyphenols.

Edison, New Jersey, March 13th 2006 - According to researchers in Japan, "Tocotrienols, vitamin E compounds that have an unsaturated side chain with three double bonds, selectively inhibited the activity of mammalian DNA polymerase lambda (pol lambda) in vitro. Polymerases are involved in cellular DNA synthesis during cell replication."The researchers also showed that tocotrienols inhibited the proliferation of and formation of tubes by bovine aortic endothelial cells, with delta-tocotrienol having the greatest effect. "The isomer's structure might be an important factor in the inhibition of pol lambda," suggested Y. Mizushina and colleagues at the Kobe Gakuin University. The study published in the recent issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication, 2006 (339), 949-955 suggests that tocotrienols may act as potent anti-cancer agents by inhibiting pol lambda and angiogenesis. What is interesting is that the regular tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta-tocopherol) do not influence the activities of mammalian polymerase and angiogenesis at all, suggesting that the three double bonds in the unsaturated side chain of tocotrienols play an important factor in the inhibition of polymerase lambda. The fact that tocotrienols, which are a natural form of vitamin E in plants, are inhibitor or a polymerase species, pol lambda, is of great interest in the science of how natural compounds inhibit cancer cells. It is therefore possible that the greater anti-angiogenic effect of tocotrienols may be due, in part, to the highly effective inhibition of polymerase lambda.