Pomegranates beat apples for antioxidant boost

The juice of pomegranate is more effective than apple in boosting the body's antioxidant defences, which decline naturally with age.The antioxidant capacity of the blood of 26 elderly subjects increased by almost 10 per cent after drinking pomegranate juice, whereas changes were negligible after apple juice. The study, published in this month's issue of Nutrition Research, is sure to be welcomed by producers of pomegranate products, already benefiting from a wealth of science reporting potential benefits of the fruit, ranging from protection against prostate cancer, slowing cartilage loss in arthritis, and potentially preventing Alzheimer's. Pomegranate, known as the royal fruit because of the 'crown' on top, is a rich source of antioxidants. It is these antioxidants, and particularly ellagitannin compounds like punicalagins and punicalins, which accounts for about half of the fruit's antioxidant ability, that are reportedly behind the proposed health benefits. Indeed, it is these compounds which most likely account for boosting the antioxidant capacity of the elderly subjects in the new study, wrote the authors.
"Because the plasma ascorbic acid, vitamin E, and reduced glutathione contents did not differ significantly between the two groups in this study, the phenolics may be the functional components contained in pomegranate juice that accounted for the observations,"wrote lead author Changjiang Guo.