Polyphenols are natural chemicals found in most plants and especially concentrated in grapes, including grape seeds. Chemically, polyphenols contain many subunits called phenols that have strong antioxidant properties. Polyphenolic compounds in oil extracted from grape seeds may have a number of benefits, including improving cardiovascular health, preventing certain cancers and reducing your risk for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological conditions. Discuss grape-seed oil with your doctor to decide if it might be helpful for you.
Cardovascular Benefits
Grape seeds are byproducts of wine-making that contain polyphenols, natural chemicals including a group of antioxidants called oligomeric proanthocyanidins, or OPCs. These compounds are present in grape-seed oil and extract. They may help improve your cardiovascular health by slowing or reversing production of fatty deposits called plaque in your arteries. When blood cholesterol is too high, low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, builds up in plaque, a process that requires LDL oxidation. Laboratory and clinical research studies have suggested that grape-seed polyphenols lower oxidized LDL and improve cardiac health. These are summarized in a review published in 2003 in "Mutation Research," in which the authors conclude that grape-seed proanthocyanidins improve cardiovascular health through a number of different biochemical mechanisms.
Anti-Cancer Effects
Because of their antioxidant activity, grape seed polyphenols help protect your body from free radicals, byproducts of digestion or environmental toxins that can injure cells. Free radicals may damage cell membranes and DNA, potentially making normal cells cancerous. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center summarizes research on grape-seed compounds that highlights their anti-cancer effects, including laboratory studies showing that grape-seed proanthocyanidin stops growth of cultured colon cancer cells and suppresses development of cancerous breast cells in response to carcinogenic chemicals. These laboratory results are promising, although clinical studies on grape-seed oil and cancer in human subjects are still needed.
Neurological Benefits
Grape seed polyphenols may help prevent or slow several neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, some forms of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Several laboratory studies suggest these natural compounds may slow accumulation of abnormal brain proteins characteristic of these disorders. For example, in a study published in the "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease" in 2010, laboratory animals with a form of Alzheimer's disease that were fed grape-seed extract had slower formation of these abnormal proteins than animals fed a placebo. In a review paper of many laboratory and preclinical studies published in the "Journal of Neurochemistry" in the same year, the authors conclude that grape-seed polyphenols may be a useful therapy for several progressive neurological diseases.
Recommendations
Grape-seed oil and grape-seed extract are available from most health-food stores, usually standardized to 40 to 80 percent content of polyphenols or proanthocyanidins. The supplements are generally considered safe, although they are not recommended for children and may interact with some medications such as blood thinners. Talk to your doctor about grape-seed oil before adding it to your regimen.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Grape Seed
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Grape Seed
- "Journal of Neurochemistry"; Development of a Grape Seed Polyphenolic Extract with Anti-Oligomeric Activity as a Novel Treatment...; G. Panetti, et al.; September 2010
- "Mutation Research"; Molecular Mechanisms of Cardioprotection by a Novel Grape Seed Proanthocyanidin Extract; D. Bagchi, et al.; February-March 2003
- "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease"; Grape Derived Polyphenols Attenuate Tau Neuropathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease; J. Wang et al.; 2010
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