Talk:Oxygen radical absorbance capacity

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Contents 1 Highest ORAC food? 2 Acai 3 Aronia (chokeberry) not included in table 4 ORAC 2007 Updated Numbers (Chocolate at 105160 Max TE Total-ORAC umol TE/100 g) ! 5 Doesn't 100 Grams of cinnamon per serving seem a bit high? 6 Comparing Apples and Oranges ( or Plums!) 7 References

[edit] Highest ORAC food?

I believe the Goji berry is now the berry with the highest ORAC.

I think the person that posted above me is correct. Costco sells Pacific Tropical Dried GojiBerries in a package and they read 25,000 ORAC units.

Actually, I think you'll find the Coffee Berry has the highest ORAC score. I'll try and get some exact figures and post them here. I would also presume that an organic fruit would have a higher ORAC score over a conventional one --0s1r1s (talk) 08:51, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

The coffeeberry website says it has equivalent ORAC in one gram to 33 grams of blueberries[2]. Using the new 2007 ORAC data for blueberries (6552 ORAC units per 100 g)[3], this means that 100 g of coffeeberry would have an ORAC of (6552/3 = 2184 x 100) 218,400 TE per 100 grams, or about the same level as dried oregano (2007 USDA data). Higher ORAC scores exist for ground clove, cinnamon and sumac bran (2007 USDA data).

A factor missed in the discussion of comparing ORAC for different food sources is how the sample was prepared and therefore how the phenolics (or other antioxidant phytochemicals) were preserved. Especially pertinent is that acai -- regarded by most as the highest ORAC plant food known (excepting spices) -- was rapidly freeze-dried[4], a method effectively capturing the raw state. Most fruits usually compared to acai in ORAC scores (always lower) were not prepared by freeze-drying, and so their antioxidant constituents would have degraded in variable ways from the time of harvest to when the sample was analyzed for ORAC. --Paul144 (talk) 12:18, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Why are blueberries located in both high and moderate ORAC, is this trying to differentiate between wild and cultivated?

[edit] Acai

The paper referenced in the entry by ”Schauss et al. published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry” is from AIMBR Life Sciences (aibmr.com) (as noted in the abstract)^[1], which is a products consulting company. At the time of this writing 2007-04-24, the first question in their FAQ (http://www.aibmr.com/FAQ.html) is "How Can a Company Build a Dossier of Credible Scientific Information about Its Product?" The only subject of the paper referenced is OptiAcai^TM which is a trademarked product name. This paper, Schauss, and OptiAcai are also linked to the Multi-level marketing (MLM) company MonaVie. The paper's author, Dr. Alex Schauss, is also author of a published book :Açai (Euterpe oleracea): The Nutritional and Antioxidant-Rich Amazonian Palm Tree Fruit by Dr. Alex Schauss. A google search of the title shows this book references by many sites that are part of the MonaVie MLM business. It is not available by more reputable distributors such as Amazon.com. Rlaney 22:17, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Aronia (chokeberry) not included in table

The value for Aronia melanocarpa (chokeberry)has not been included in the chart, which according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aronia, has "one of the highest values yet recorded, of 16,100 micromoles of Trolox Eq. per 100 g (Wu et al. 2004)." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amzo19 (talk • contribs) 22:04, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ORAC 2007 Updated Numbers (Chocolate at 105160 Max TE Total-ORAC umol TE/100 g) !

Here are links to the latest ORAC 07 pages and pdf files (from the people who I think originally broke the news about blueberry extract and memory/motor skills preservation).
These seem to show that ORAC chocolate is underestimated on the page we're discussing probably due to the dated entries:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/071106.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata/ORAC

There are some very high total-ORAC numbers on the Max. end for things like cacao-based foods, herbs and spices.

for ex:

Total-ORAC umol TE/100 g:

Baking chocolate, unsweetened, squares 105160
Cinnamon, ground, 256536
Sorghum, bran, hi-tannin, 240000
Sumac, bran, raw, 312400
(Sumac is a common condiment in Persian foods and available at big markets like "Jon's" in Los Angeles, etc.)

I'm a fan of chopping up dried wild blueberries with Sharffen-Berger's 99% dark chocolate (or other similar quality "baking" chocolates) on a cutting board or in a food-processor and then, depending on the ambient temperature, hand-forming bon-bons or even melting-tempering the stuff.

Of course, dried blueberries by weight are some of the highest ORAC fruit available Some research notes that drying lowers the anthocyanins but not the polyphenols and that the ORAC value doesn't suffer in the process (though the anthocyanins are thought to "to significantly suppress the growth of cultured tumour cells"...). "The Change of Total Anthocyanins in Blueberries and Their Antioxidant Effect After Drying and Freezing"(J Biomed Biotechnol. 2004; 2004(5): 248–252. doi: 10.1155/S1110724304406123.)

-- Tique (talk) 17:19, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Doesn't 100 Grams of cinnamon per serving seem a bit high?

It seems like the number should be downgraded to a teaspoon or so to better reflect a reasonable serving size. Squibm (talk) 15:16, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Hello Squibm -- the issue should not be a serving size since a lab analysis doesn't take that into account. A standard sample size in the lab is usually one gram but that may not yield a whole number or is too small a sample to be realistic for a fruit serving, so usually a larger standard measure is used like 100 g.

It shouldn't matter as long as all foods are standardized to the same sample size. It could be 100 g, one g or one kg. The ORAC data can still be compared, food by food, as long as all are expressed by the same weight.

A more interesting question for me is to ask why Mother Nature created spice plants with such dense and intense contents of pigment phenolics. In nature, polyphenols serve properties that are either (or both) defensive (against sun, uv irradition, harsh climate factors, pests or diseases) and/or attractant (for foragers to easily find and eat the plant then spread seeds). Why in nature do spice plants need such intense protection or attraction? Here's an example for a fruit with the highest known ORAC, acai -- http://www.berrydoctor.com/broadcast/2008/acai.htm

Best regards, --Paul144 (talk) 16:05, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Comparing Apples and Oranges ( or Plums!)

1 apple weighs 200 gms whereas 1 plum might weigh max 50 gm. So can we use 100gms as the unit or we should also mention the weight alongside the serving size in a separate column.

J mareeswaran (talk) 18:36, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Scientific comparisons are valid only when based on units per equal weight so each food of interest should be converted to either per gram or 100 gram sample. Since volumes consumed per serving will vary from one individual or one reference to the next, serving size is an awkward unit for comparisons.

This otherwise interesting and valuable analysis^[2] of antioxidant food values for different superfruit juices by an Australian consumer group is flawed because the volume (weight) units of each juice product vs. a whole apple of different weight are not standardized to the same weight. --Paul144 (talk) 19:22, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] References