Antioxidants in Acai

A comparative analysis of the Acai berry has reported that Acai, pronounced ah-sigh-ee, has an intermediate potency of antioxidants when compared among 11 different varieties of frozen Acai juice pulps, which allowed it to score lower than grapes, mangoes, strawberries and acerola. A powdered preparation of Acai fruit skin and pulp that had been freeze dried, on the other hand, was shown to contain 3.19 mg/g of anthocyanins, although the anthocyanins accounted for approximately 10 percent of the overall capacity of antioxidants only, which was not all together impressive.

The powdered preparation of Acai berry was also reported to contain approximately twelve different flavonoid-like compounds, which included orientin, homoorientin, taxifolin, scoparin, isovitexin, deoxyhexose, proanthocyanidins and also lower levels of resveratrol.

In a study of a number of different varieties of Acai to find their specific antioxidant capacities, there was one white species that did not display any antioxidant activity against certain oxygen radicals, while on the other hand the purple Acai variety, the one that is most often used in commercial purposes, proved excellent against peroxyl radicals, performed good against peroxynitrite and performed poorly against hydroxyl radicals. The purple variety of Acai is the one most commonly used in Acai berry diet products.

Freeze dried Acai powder proved to have high antioxidant activity against peroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals, and it had milder antioxidant properties against peroxynitrite as well as hydroxyl radicals. The freeze dried Acai berry powder was reported to have inhibited oxidation induced by hydrogen peroxide in neutrophils, and it also was reported to have had a slight stimulatory effect on the production of nitric oxide by macrophages stimulated by lipopolysaccharide in vitro.

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