Grape Seed Extract, Pycnogenols, Pycnogenol and Proanthocyanidins

Grape Seed Extract, Pycnogenols, Pycnogenol and Proanthocyanidins

Seldom does a powerful and valuable new antioxidant product arrive in the U.S., after long use in Europe, with more controversy and hype around it. The history of proanthocyanidins is interesting, and worth understanding.

To begin with, the romantic part of the legend was said to start in Canada, when the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring the St. Lawrence River, saved his crew from scurvy by brewing a tea from pine bark and needles on the advice of friendly Indians. He recorded this experience in his book VOYAGES AU CANADA.

The modern episode commenced 400 years later in 1950 when the French Professor Jacques Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux was doing work on bioflavonoids, read Cartier's book and recognized the signs of a bioflavonoid. Masquelier and his colleagues identified a class of bioflavonoids which he baptized with a generic name, pycnogenols. Unfortunately, the scientific community has tended to ignore the name pycnogenols and prefers the scientific term proanthocyanidins, or oligomeric proanthocyanidin complex (OPC).

Pycnogenols (or OPCs) are found in the bark of certain trees, in grape seeds, in many types of berries, in certain beans, etc. Because the south of France was blessed with two of the richest sources of pycnogenols--grapes and the French Maritime Pine--Professor Masquelier had abundant raw material. In 1951, he patented a method of extracting pycnogenols from pine bark, and in 1970 extended this same technique to cover grape seed. For a number of reasons, however, all research, clinical trials, and the present French pharmaceutical form have used grape seed extract, and in France, where the product has been on the market for years, OPC from grape seeds outsells that from pine bark about 5:1.

The principal reason for the research concentration on grape seeds has been the one year growing cycle (vs. 15 for a pine) and the ability to place radioactive markers in the grape vines to study pycnogenol's metabolism. Without doubt, the market dominance of grape seed extracts in Europe comes not only from this link to the researched product, but because grape seed extract has a higher percentage of proanthocyanidins than pine bark extract (95% vs. 85%), and is less expensive.

Into the midst of this developing research, however, rides an Irish company, Horphag Research, Ltd., providing financing, and obtaining a license to produce a pine bark extract they trademarked Pycnogenol (tm). This is tantamount to trying to trademark the words "water" or "tocopherol." This has led to much legal scrapping, and confusion in the press and with the public, as Pycnogenol (tm) has tried to exert its superiority and exclusivity to the name pycnogenol. While Pycnogenol (tm) is undoubtedly a fine product, its claims to superiority are doubly doubtful as most of the research was done on grape seed extract and then extrapolated to pine bark.

As for Professor Masquelier, he favors the grape seed extract product due to its higher OPC content, its lower cost, and its higher content of beneficial gallic acid esters of proanthocyanidins. By all accounts, attempts to imply that Pycnogenol (tm) has some mystical yet unidentified content other than proanthocyanidins has no basis in fact.

Proanthocyanidins have been shown to be among the most potent antioxidants and antimutagens ever tested, and are used clinically in Europe for a number of problems related to poor circulation and free radical production including circulatory problems of the heart and brain, capillary fragility, edema, varicose veins, platelet aggregation and visual disturbances. Typical European daily doses range from 50-300 mg of grape seed extract.

VRP is confident, in introducing our grape seed extract, that we are providing a powerful, very high quality, and relatively economical source of proanthocyanidins.

The information in this article is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional, and has not been approved by the U.S. FDA.

Copyright 2001 by Vitamin Research Products, Inc. (VRP) The use of information found in Vitamin Research News for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission from VRP.