Mother Nature to the Rescue
Examining Powerful Antioxidants
One of my favorite movies of all time is "The Natural," a baseball flick with Robert Redford, and one of my reasons for loving it is the late, great character actor Richard Farnsworth (who, interestingly enough, had been in movies for so many years that he was in "Gone with the Wind" as a stuntman).
In one scene in "The Natural," Farnsworth takes Redford to an Italian restaurant, where Farnsworth memorably says of the food, "You can't spell it, but it eats good!" That line has come to mind a lot lately as I've been reading more about a natural substance called pterostilbene (pronounced "tair-oh-STILL-bean").
Maybe you haven't heard of pterostilebene -- but it's definitely worth learning about, considering its prospects as an inhibitor of breast cancer, diabetes and LDL ("bad") cholesterol. And you don't have harvest some rare plant at the top of a remote Himalayan peak to get your hands on pterostilbene; it's as close as your grocery store, because it's found in both blueberries and grapes.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Oxford, Miss., have been the real leaders in studies of this amazing compound. One of those ARS researchers has been studying pterostilbene since the early 1990s, when she extracted it from a plant from Thailand and found that it was toxic to cancer cell lines.
But what really jump-started this work again was the discovery that a natural compound called resveratrol -- recently all over the news as the health-promoting compound in red wine -- might have cancer-preventive activity.
You see, pterostilbene could be described as a "kissing cousin" of resveratrol. Pterostilbene is one of a large group of aromatic hydrocarbons known as "stilbenes," and it's a derivative of resveratrol, which is found in large quantities in the skin of red grapes.
(In case you've missed the buzz over resveratrol, the idea is that it's the "magic ingredient" in the French diet that allows the French to live very long lives despite eating foods very high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The theory is that the resveratrol in red wine -- a staple of the French diet -- lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease.)
The ARS scientists have had truly ground-breaking results in their studies with pterostilbene. In 2002 they showed that, when used at the same concentrations as resveratrol, pterostilbene was just as good a cancer-cell fighter. They also found that pterostilbene is a powerful antioxidant-- good news for those of us interested in fighting off the ravages of aging.
The news was even bigger in 2004. First, the ARS scientists announced that they'd detected pterostilbene -- for the first time ever -- in berries of Vaccinium, a genus of shrubs that includes many types of berries, such as blueberries, a rich and ready source of the compound. It was already known that pterostilbene was in red-skinned grapes, but in very small amounts.
But the really big news was that pterostilbene can help lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease. These findings came out of animal studies that the ARS scientists did with university colleagues.
In fact, the pterostilbene was very similar in activity to ciprofibrate, a commercial drug that lowers LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. But while ciprofibrate can have side effects such as muscle pain and nausea, pterostilbene targets the same receptors in the body and is much less likely to have side effects.
More recently, the ARS scientists and university colleagues have shown pterostilbene's potential as a cancer-inhibiting compound with regard to inhibiting enzymes that activate chemical carcinogens.
In plain English: Certain enzymes, called cytochromes, affect how our bodies respond to drugs and toxins that enter our bodies. One of these enzymes, cytochrome P450, activates a variety of compounds called "procarcinogens," which can turn substances such as cigarette smoke and pesticides into carcinogens.
In their studies, the ARS scientists and their colleagues showed that pterostilbene is very good at inhibiting the activity of a particular form of cytochrome P450. In fact, it's much stronger at that particular task than resveratrol.
However, the scientists don't totally understand that process yet, so more studies are needed -- but it sounds like we're on the right track to some great news from Mother Nature!
The Agricultural Research Service is the chief in-house scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can read more about ARS discoveries at http://www.ars.usda.gov/news/.
"Everybody's
Science" is written by Sandy Miller Hays, Director of Information for
the Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific research agency
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hays is a native of Fort Smith,
Ark. From the late 1970s until early 1988, Hays was a reporter, editor
and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),
a Little Rock-based daily newspaper. She joined the ARS Information
Staff in 1988, and became Director of Information in April 1998.
Examining Powerful Antioxidants
One of my favorite movies of all time is "The Natural," a baseball flick with Robert Redford, and one of my reasons for loving it is the late, great character actor Richard Farnsworth (who, interestingly enough, had been in movies for so many years that he was in "Gone with the Wind" as a stuntman).
In one scene in "The Natural," Farnsworth takes Redford to an Italian restaurant, where Farnsworth memorably says of the food, "You can't spell it, but it eats good!" That line has come to mind a lot lately as I've been reading more about a natural substance called pterostilbene (pronounced "tair-oh-STILL-bean").
Maybe you haven't heard of pterostilebene -- but it's definitely worth learning about, considering its prospects as an inhibitor of breast cancer, diabetes and LDL ("bad") cholesterol. And you don't have harvest some rare plant at the top of a remote Himalayan peak to get your hands on pterostilbene; it's as close as your grocery store, because it's found in both blueberries and grapes.
Blueberries are packed with healthful phytochemicals such as
pterostilbene, which has been shown to lower cholesterol in some lab
animals. (Photo by Betty Greb)
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Oxford, Miss., have been the real leaders in studies of this amazing compound. One of those ARS researchers has been studying pterostilbene since the early 1990s, when she extracted it from a plant from Thailand and found that it was toxic to cancer cell lines.
But what really jump-started this work again was the discovery that a natural compound called resveratrol -- recently all over the news as the health-promoting compound in red wine -- might have cancer-preventive activity.
You see, pterostilbene could be described as a "kissing cousin" of resveratrol. Pterostilbene is one of a large group of aromatic hydrocarbons known as "stilbenes," and it's a derivative of resveratrol, which is found in large quantities in the skin of red grapes.
(In case you've missed the buzz over resveratrol, the idea is that it's the "magic ingredient" in the French diet that allows the French to live very long lives despite eating foods very high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The theory is that the resveratrol in red wine -- a staple of the French diet -- lowers the incidence of cardiovascular disease.)
The ARS scientists have had truly ground-breaking results in their studies with pterostilbene. In 2002 they showed that, when used at the same concentrations as resveratrol, pterostilbene was just as good a cancer-cell fighter. They also found that pterostilbene is a powerful antioxidant-- good news for those of us interested in fighting off the ravages of aging.
The news was even bigger in 2004. First, the ARS scientists announced that they'd detected pterostilbene -- for the first time ever -- in berries of Vaccinium, a genus of shrubs that includes many types of berries, such as blueberries, a rich and ready source of the compound. It was already known that pterostilbene was in red-skinned grapes, but in very small amounts.
But the really big news was that pterostilbene can help lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease. These findings came out of animal studies that the ARS scientists did with university colleagues.
In fact, the pterostilbene was very similar in activity to ciprofibrate, a commercial drug that lowers LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. But while ciprofibrate can have side effects such as muscle pain and nausea, pterostilbene targets the same receptors in the body and is much less likely to have side effects.
More recently, the ARS scientists and university colleagues have shown pterostilbene's potential as a cancer-inhibiting compound with regard to inhibiting enzymes that activate chemical carcinogens.
In plain English: Certain enzymes, called cytochromes, affect how our bodies respond to drugs and toxins that enter our bodies. One of these enzymes, cytochrome P450, activates a variety of compounds called "procarcinogens," which can turn substances such as cigarette smoke and pesticides into carcinogens.
In their studies, the ARS scientists and their colleagues showed that pterostilbene is very good at inhibiting the activity of a particular form of cytochrome P450. In fact, it's much stronger at that particular task than resveratrol.
However, the scientists don't totally understand that process yet, so more studies are needed -- but it sounds like we're on the right track to some great news from Mother Nature!
The Agricultural Research Service is the chief in-house scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can read more about ARS discoveries at http://www.ars.usda.gov/news/.
About the author
"Everybody's
Science" is written by Sandy Miller Hays, Director of Information for
the Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific research agency
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hays is a native of Fort Smith,
Ark. From the late 1970s until early 1988, Hays was a reporter, editor
and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),
a Little Rock-based daily newspaper. She joined the ARS Information
Staff in 1988, and became Director of Information in April 1998.