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| treatment for the skin disease purpura. Scientists refused to acknowledge the value of flavonoids, however, and they have existed in a kind of nutritional limbo ever since. |
| Flavonoids, referred to as "biological response modifiers," possess anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, antiviral, and anticarcinogenic properties. The potent antioxidant activity of flavonoids may be their most important healing aspect. |
| Flavonoids can be found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and many, many herbs. Some of the best-known flavonoids are citrin, hesperidin, and rutin; they are abundantly found in the white pulp of citrus fruits and in grapes, plums, black currants, apricots, buckwheat, cherries, blackberries, and rose hips. They remove toxic copper from the body and protect vitamin C from the destructive action of some copper-containing enzymes. There is a synergy between flavonoids and vitamin C that may play a role in promoting vitamin C's anticancer effects. |
| There are five categories of flavonoids: |
| 1. Anthocyanins, anthochlors. Anthocyanins are red-blue pigments in plants (such as plums and cherries). Anthochlors are yellow and are found primarily in flowers (such as calendula) in abundance. |
| 2. Minor flavonoids. Minor flavonoids include flavonons, flavon-3-ols, dihydroflavones, and dihydrochalcones. Some flavon-3-ols include catechin and epigallocatechin 3-gallate, which is found in green tea, and proanthocyanidin oligomers (PCOs). Pycnogenols include a group of PCOs. |
| 3. Flavones and flavonols. Flavones and flavonols are the most widely occurring flavonoids and they include quercetin, a major flavonoid I often recommend as a supplement. |
| 4. Isoflavonoids. Isoflavonoids, found primarily in legumes, include genistein, which is found in soybeans. |
| 5. Tannins. Tannins include proanthocyanidins, anthocyanides, and gallic acid phenolics (this is what gives red wine some of its health benefits). When supplementing with PCOs or pycnogenol, be sure to get the real thing. Look for the name of the French researcher Jack Masquelier on the bottle. Another supplement that I often recommend is PCO Phytosome by Phyto Pharmica (see Resources). 89 |
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