Nature's Most Amazing Antioxidants

From Essential Oils News

The February/March 2001 issue of Natural Medicine Alert, Published by the Young Life Research Clinic (YLRC) and the Institute of Natural Medicine, contains an article entitled: "Fruits and Premature Aging".  It was thoroughly documented, with 80 cited references.

According to this article, one of the secrets to a long, disease-free life is to eat lots of fresh berries.

Here is why.

Researchers are coming to the conclusion that the aging process is the result of the action of free oxygen radicals, produced in our bodies through normal metabolism and cell function, as well as from external environmental sources (toxins).

What are free radicals?

In your body, oxygen is necessary for most metabolic functions.  In these specific processes, oxygen molecules give off one or more of their electrons, leaving them as electrically unbalanced oxygen atoms.  They are essentially partial molecules.  These are known as free radicals.

As partial molecules, free radicals frantically look for their missing parts.  This makes them hungry and aggressive, ready to grab a chunk from whatever tissue is available (namely, a piece of your body).  Hence, they can cause disease by disrupting normal function at the cellular level.

Importance of antioxidants

As long as our bodies can keep these free radicals in check, we stay youthful and healthy.  However, when we suffer from an immune deficiency or experience excess stress from environmental factors such as ambient radiation, impurities in our air or water, toxins in our foods, etc., free radicals can be formed in our bodies at a much greater rate than we can handle.  At this point, we get out of balance, and these radicals aggressively attack our tissues, causing unhealthy mutations and irreversible damage.  The consequences of this include accelerated aging, and a host of other maladies.

However, there are foods and other substances that contain antioxidants.  These absorb free radicals, effectively neutralizing their damaging effects.  The more of these you get in your diet, the more youthful and disease-free you will remain.

The ORAC scale of antioxidant activity

Scientists at Tufts University have developed a scale for the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity) test.  The higher the ORAC score, the more capable that particular food is of destroying free radicals, thus retarding the aging process and other diseases.

Researchers at Tufts University have tested several foods for their ORAC capabilities.  Here are the scores of some of the highest rated antioxidant foods:

• Carrots: 210
• Oranges: 750
• Beets: 840
• Raspberries: 1,220
• Strawberries: 1,540
• Blueberries: 2,400

Raspberries, strawberries and blueberries offer impressive antioxidant benefits.  Cherries, cranberries, apricots, elderberries, pomegranates and huckleberries also score very high on the ORAC scale.  However, the benefits of all of these pale in comparison to some other powerful antioxidant foods:

• Ningxia Wolfberries (Lyceum Barbarum): 25,300
• Clove oil: 10,786,875

As impressive as wolfberries are for their antioxidant value, one drop of clove oil contains 400 times the antioxidant capacity, per unit volume, than wolfberries, the most powerful antioxidant fruit known.

The NingXia wolfberry

The Chinese wolfberry (Lyceum barbarum) comes from the NingXia Province of China.  It's the food credited for the extraordinary longevity of the people of this area, who typically live to 120-150 years of age, leading active lives until the end.

They live so long because they don't get sick.

They don't get sick because their isolated existence, high in the desert, is untouched by pollution and they eat only organic, natural foods that are high in antioxidants.  One of the most-prized foods is the wolfberry.

Scientific studies have demonstrated that the wolfberries of this region are far superior to those from other areas.  But the people of China didn't need the sophisticated testing used today: they have long considered the Ningxia wolfberry to be a national treasure.

Where you can find Ningxia wolfberries

Well, if wolfberries are so great, how can you get some?  There are many imitators, but there is really only one source for the authentic NingXia wolfberry in the United States.  It's the largest importer of NingXia wolfberries in North America, and currently has over 100,000 bushes under cultivation, in ground that is amazingly like that of the NingXia Province.

One of the most amazing of the NingXia wolfberry products is the super antioxidant juice.  It also contains essential oils rich in the powerful antioxidant d-limonene.  The scientists at Tufts University have determined that this juice has the highest ORAC score of any food on the market.  It contains 80% NingXia wolfberry juice (Update: since 2005, it has contained whole wolfberry puree), along with blueberry, pomegranate, apricot and raspberry juices — some of the highest-scoring antioxidant foods in the world.

And it tastes great!

One 2 oz serving of this juice has the antioxidant capacity of

• 4 pounds of carrots,
• 2 quarts of carrot juice,
• 8 oranges,
• 1 pint of orange juice,
• 2 pounds of beets,
• 2 cups of beet juice,
• 3 cups of raspberries, or
• 2 cups of blueberries.

The super antioxidant juice may seem expensive (a 2 oz serving costs about a dollar at wholesale), but compared to the costs of the equivalent foods listed above, you'll see that, for the same antioxidant benefit, the super antioxidant juice is actually a very cost-effective way to get this great antioxidant protection.

Therapeutic-grade essential oils: The most powerful antioxidants on earth

As impressive as the NingXia wolfberry is for its antioxidant capacity, it doesn't come even close to what you'll find in therapeutic-grade essential oils.

Without question, essential oils have the highest ORAC scores of any known substance.  The Essential Oils Desk Reference lists these values for the following oils:

Essential Oil	Botanical Name	ORAC Score (μTE/100g)
Sandalwood	Santalum Album	160
Roman chamomile	Chamaemelum nobile	240
Juniper	Juniperus osteosperma	250
Rosemary	Rosmarinus officinalis	3,309
Lavender	Lavendula angustifolia	360
Spearmint	Mentha spicata	540
Helichrysum	Helichrysum italicum	1,700
Lemongrass	Cymbopogen flexuosus	1,780
Orange	Citrus aurantium	1,890
Eucalyptus	Eucalyptus globulus	2,400
Rose of Sharon	Cistus ladanifer	3,860
Cinnamon Bark	Cinnamamum verum	10,340
Mountain Savory	Satureja montana	11,300
Oregano	Origanum compactum	15,300
Thyme	Thymus vulgaris	15,960
Clove	Syzigium aromaticum	1,078,700

[Note: In this table, the amount measured varies from the amounts used in the previous figures.  Multiply by about 10 to get the numbers comparable to the berries listed above.]

If you were to compare these numbers with those of the berries, you can easily see how potent essential oils really are.  The last six oils in this table are even more powerful than wolfberries.

Of course, the comparison isn't quite fair, since oils are highly concentrated, while fresh fruits are not.  Nevertheless, a 15 ml bottle of clove oil has the antioxidant capacity of 150 lbs of carrots, 40 quarts of blueberries or 16 gallons of beet juice.  Just two drops of clove oil has the antioxidant capacity of:

• 2.5 tablespoons of the super antioxidant juice,
• 5 pounds of carrots,
• 2.5 quarts of carrot juice,
• 10 oranges,
• 20 ounces or orange juice,
• 2.5 pounds of beets,
• 1 pint of beet juice,
• 4 cups of raspberries, or
• 2.5 cups of blueberries.

This means that a drop of clove in your drinking water, or a drop of any edible essential oil in anything you eat, is good for long, healthy living; and you don't have to eat a dozen oranges or drink a quart of beet juice every day to do it.  A couple of spoonfuls of the super antioxidant juice will do it, too.

The bottom line is this: The benefits of breathing in, topically applying or taking essentials oils internally, while consuming the super antioxidant juice and other supplements, are far greater than you can imagine.