What is in grape seed extract?
Grape seed extract contains a vast array of health-giving ingredients, such as protein, lipids, carbohydrates and polyphenols.
The term flavonoid is used for a class of plant chemicals known for their activity as highly potent antioxidants, and therefore for their capability in protecting the body against oxidative and free radical damage. It’s not really surprising when you consider the scientific studies: they show that the antioxidant power of polyphenols is 20 times more powerful than vitamin E, and 50 times greater than vitamin C.
What else can grape seed extract do?
Some people call these polyphenols “nature’s biological response modifiers” because of their ability to help the body fight viruses, allergens, and carcinogens.
That means that among their many talents, they exhibit anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-cancerous, and anti-microbial activity.
Grape Seed Extract contains Procyanidins which also bond with collagen, the most abundant protein in the body and a key component of skin, gums, bones, teeth, hair and body tissues.
The bonding promotes cell health and skin elasticity, making it seem more youthful, in a process that works almost like a natural face-lift. Procyanidins additionally help protect the body from sun damage, which can also cause premature ageing of the skin.
More importantly it helps inside the body
Vanity is one thing, but underlying health is quite another.
Far more important to your body than looking good, is the fact that procyanidins can improve your vision, the flexibility of your joints, the health of your arteries and body tissues (such as the heart) and also strengthen capilliaries and veins to improve your circulatory system.
This is important because the health of your circulatory system affects the health of your heart.
It seems that grape seed extract delays the oxidation of low density lipoproteins, the fats that are responsible for “bad cholesterol”.
So, procyanidins present in grape seeds are known to exert anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic and anti-allergic activities, to prevent skin aging, to scavenge oxygen free radicals and to inhibit the damaging effects of UV radiation from sunlight.
Since most of these processes are linked to cancer, it follows that grape seeds are probably strong anti-carcinogenic and/or anti-tumor-promoting agents.
The other “secret ingredient” of grape seed extract.
One other of the grape’s hidden health weapons is also worth a mention: it’s called resveratrol. This chemical is found primarily in the skin and seeds, particularly in muscadine grapes, and it confers a number of beneficial effects to the body.
They include all those mentioned above, but also an ability to help the brain and its processes work efficiently i.e. they have neuroprotective capabilities. In rats, this has life-prolonging effects, so it’s reasonable to assume it may do the same for other animals, humans included.