Scientists discovered thousands of antioxidants of wihich 500 is well-understood. Many of them can be obtained only under laboratory conditions, others occur widely in nature, mostly in food. In our home market we have a few dozen as vitamin A (retinol), witamin E (tocopherol), vitamin C, rutin, quercetin, hesperidin, naringenin. Until the interest the topic I knew 3 of them. It just shows how low our consciousness is in dealing with the pathogenesis of diseases and the use of antioxidants. In the English-language medical press appear from time to time reports of newly discovered antioxidants and ongoing research into their application. With tracked literature you can also find out about the origins of antioxidants-how to place of origin determines the purity and power of antioxidants. One way to estimate this “power” is the ORAC.
ORAC is the antioxidant capacity of foods; it is determined using the test, the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.
ORAC sets out all products of plant origin like fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices and vitamins such as vitamin A, C, E, quercetin and dihydroquercetin in terms of “power” antioxidants.
Interestingly, fruits and vegetables, depending on whether they are raw or dried have different antioxidant capacity. List of products is very long, we addressed the topic I am interested in the compounds. Below I present a summary of it:
Substance ORAChydro
Dihydroquercetin 95% purity 32743,81 µM TE/g
Dihydroquercetin 94% purity 21940 µM TE/g
Dihydroquercetin 92–93% purity 19925 µM TE/g
Dihydroquercetin 88–90% purity 15155 µM TE/g
Luteolin 12100 µM TE/g
Quercetin 10900 µM TE/g
Vitamin C 2100 µM TE/g
Vitamin E 1300 µM TE/g
As you see dihydroquercetin has the highest value. This is due to the fact that the treatment of dahursky`s larch is subjected to a unique process that allows you to obtain a very high ORAC rate. Higher purity of Dihydroquercetin significantly affects its physical and chemical properties. Dihydroquercetin as part of a complex of Bioflavonoids, differs from other well-known products, due to the ability to transform into a highly pure crystallised form; free from resin, essential oils and other impurities, which weaken her purity.
Many plants that demonstrate antioxidant activity grows in areas where there are severe weather conditions but what’s important these sites are free from contaminants. Taxifolin is produced with Siberian and dahursky`s larh. In the greater part of the zone of coniferous forests there is permafrost. and is very deep frozen and thawed only in the summer to a depth of 1 m. Permafrost prevents passing out rainwater, which favors the formation of extensive wetlands. Plants have adapted to the prevailing conditions by antioxidants, which protect by mold, fungi and insects. It must be also added that these trees live about 100 years but many copies dating even 600.
How can I examine the purity of Dihydroquercetin (DHQ)?
Purity control can be done using liquid chromatography. This is a very accurate and precision way to assess the purity of the substance.
In chromatography eluent is the liquid (typically a solvent). The essence of each liquid chromatography is a separation of the mixture into individual chemical compounds by passing this mixture solution by fixed or gum deposits, as well as in the process of filtration. As a result of intermolecular interactions between the compounds forming the mixture and the fluid, some of them pass rapidly through the bed and the other more slowly. The higher the purity of dihydroquercetin (in%) the harder and longer period for obtain her. It should also be noted that all the copies of the wood are subjected to selection. A tree that has been attacked by pests is not suitable to raise taxifolin. All damaged and infested insects trees are treated as hazardous waste and are not subject to technological process.
1/ http://www.oracvalues.com/
2/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_radical_absorbance_capacity
3/ Extraction of Dihydroquercetin from Larix gmelinii with Ultrasound-Assisted and Microwave-Assisted Alternant Digestion, Chunhui Ma, Lei Yang, Wenjie Wang *, Fengjian Yang, Chunjian Zhao and Yuangang Zu * International Journal of Molecular Sciences ISSN 1422-0067www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 8789-8804; doi:10.3390/ijms13078789
4/ Polyphenols in different larch (Larix spp.) species [2008] Kozjan, G., Javor Pivka, Snezniska cesta 12, Pivka (Slovenia) Zule, J., Institut za celulozo in papir, Ljubljana (Slovenia) http://petelin.gozdis.si/zbgl/2008/zbgl-86-6.pdf