Pine Bark Extract Proanthocyanidins and Pine Bark Uses.

Natural Hair Loss Treatments and OPCs.:

Pine Bark Extract INCI Name Pinetree extract CAS 000000-14-0 French Marine Pine Bark Extract French Maritime Pine Bark Extract Leucoanthocyanidins OPC Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins PCO Pinus maritima Pinus pinaster Procyandiol Oligomers Procyanodolic Oligomers Pycnogenol Pygenol Pine Bark Extract.Proanthocyanidins Pinus Strobus Bark extract.Proanthocyanidin B2 photo picture image Pine bark and grape seed contain the flavonoids OPCs, which offer antioxidant protection against heart disease and cancer.

Proanthocyanidins--more technically oligomeric proanthocyanidins and, hence, the OPC moniker--are a class of flavonoids. Formerly called "condensed tannins," all proanthocyanidins are chemically similar, the only differences being slight changes in shape and attachments of their polyphenol rings. In nature, a jumble of different proanthocyanidins is always found together, ranging from individual units to complex molecules of many linked units (oligomers).

OPCs are found in many woody plants. The two most common sources of proanthocyanidins are grape seeds (Vitis vinifera) and the white pine (Pinus maritima, P. pinaster) of southern Europe. Grape seeds can have 7 to 15 percent more OPCs than pine bark and can be more potent as well as more economical.1 OPCs are also abundant in blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica), horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha), as well as in apples, berries, barley (and beer made from it), bean hulls, chocolate, rhubarb, rose hips and sorghum.

Proanthocyanidins deserve their stellar reputation as antioxidants that quench free radicals and potentiate other antioxidants. In one in vitro study, the OPCs in a patented pine bark extract prolonged the life span of vitamin C by 400 percent.2 Another in vitro study showed that exposing blood vessel linings to pine bark OPCs boosted their vitamin E content by 15 percent.3 Grape seed has also shown recycling and potentiating effects. The test tube-based activity of vitamin E, in a system mimicking cell membranes, has shown enhancement by grape seed OPCs.4

A recent mouse study by Debasis Bagchi, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Creighton University School of Pharmacy in Omaha, Neb., also found that a patented grape seed extract protected tissue from oxidation better than the antioxidant vitamins C and E or beta-carotene.

Proanthocyanidins may do even more than prevent disease; they may make us more youthful looking. Oxidation damage causes most visible signs of aging in our skin. By preventing this damage, skin will stay younger looking. One way to achieve this is to reduce the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) light. Sunscreen products have incorporated a variety of antioxidants with the intent that they will prevent sun injury to the skin. In one study, grape seed OPCs exerted a solo antioxidant effect at a level of potency on a par with vitamin E--protecting different polyunsaturated fatty acids from UV light-induced lipid peroxidation.26 In this same study, the grape OPCs synergistically interacted with vitamin E, recycling the inactivated form of the vitamin into the active form and thus acting as a virtual vitamin E extender.

Proanthocyanidins show tremendous promise. However, we still have much research to do before there is a single pill to keep us feeling healthy and looking youthful. Fortunately, consumers don't need to wait for the results of large-scale clinical trials to begin enjoying the benefits of proanthocyanidins. These compounds are available today in food and supplements.

Proanthocyanidins promote hair follicle cell proliferation and the anagen phase of hair growth:

In recently published research, Takahashi et al examined 1000 different plant products to determine if any of them could influence hair growth. They determined that proanthocyanidins extracted from grape seeds promoted the proliferation of hair cells by 230%. They also determined that proanthocyanidins converted the telogen (non-growing) phase of hair growth into the anagen (growing) phase of hair growth. In this experiment, proanthocyanidins displayed hair-cycle-converting activity which was similar to that of minoxidil.

We are now investigating the possibility of the use of proanthocyanidins as agents for curing androgenic alopecia.

Several selective protein kinase C inhibitors including procyanidins promote hair growth:

Procyanidin oligomers selectively promote growth of murine hair epithelial cells in vitro and stimulate anagen induction in vivo. We report here the possible relationship between the protein kinase C-inhibiting activity of procyanidins and their hair-growing activity.

Of the procyanidins, procyanidin B-2 and procyanidin C-1, which selectively inhibit protein kinase C, intensively promote hair epithelial cell proliferation in vitro and stimulate anagen induction in vivo.

On the other hand, procyanidins, which inhibit both protein kinase C and A, showed relatively low activity in in vitro and in vivo evaluations. We also found that calphostin C, which is a selective inhibitor of protein kinase C, possesses hair epithelial cell growth-promoting activity in vitro and anagen phase-inducing hair-growing activity in vivo.

Other selective protein kinase C inhibitors, such as hexadecylphosphocholine, palmitoyl-DL-carnitine chloride, and polymyxin B sulfate, also show marked anagen phase-inducing hair-growing activity in vivo.

Nonselective protein kinase inhibitors, such as staurosporine and K252a, inhibit the growth of hair epithelial cells. 1,2-Dioctanoyl-sn-glycerol, a protein kinase C activator, dose-dependently decreases the growth of hair epithelial cells.

Reference:

Pine Bark Extract Proanthocyanidins and Pine Bark Uses.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:08th,Oct.2010.