Press reports concerning the significance of phenol compounds, existing in fractions of non-saponificating vegetable oils, have been occurring recently. The studies suggest that vegetable oils display their undoubted health properties not only through the effect on an body of particular fatty acids and their glycerides (e.g. OMEGA 3, CLA, MCT, SCT), but also through phenol compounds. Phenol compounds have been widely discussed in various publications which irrefutably prove their health properties. The antiradical, antiexudative, anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic, antineoplastic and anti-infectious effects of polyphenols come to the fore.
Therefore the initiative of a research team from the Department of the Food Technology of the University of Agriculture and Technology in Olsztyn seem valuable. They attempted at assessing the content of particular groups of active components in the non-saponificating fraction of selected vegetable oils. The content of polyphenols displayed here a wide range – from approx. 0.5 to approx. 13% of the non-saponificating fraction of a given oil. The lowest results concerned borage and Oenothera oils, whereas the highest – sea buckthorn oil.
Although so far no work has compiled the data about the content of polyphenols in all edible oils, extrapolating the results of the studies, we can still assume that all cold-pressure vegetable oils should contain phenol compounds. The note also applies to oils from the aster family – Asteraceae – the sunflower and safflower oils. It is so significant due to the fact that so far the presence of a special phenol compound - dicaffeoylquinic acid (DCQA) has basically been confirmed only in this botanic family. This is particularly interesting because, as Claudio Cerboncini from the Caesar Research Centre claims, it is one of the few well-known substances which inhibit virus integrase and prevent viral reproduction, including the HIV virus. As it was determined, the DCQA synthesis by aster family plants is a way of the protection of the plants against the attack of pathogenic fungi and molds.
These observations can have a considerable significance on the diet supplements market because the CLA preparations are a suitably concentrated form of safflower oil, which is “suspected” of DC QA content. In this situation, it should be considered whether the observed increase of resistance to infections and cancers is the effect of supplementation of CLA preparations only as a result of the action of conjugated isomers of linolic acid or the simultaneous co-action of caffeoylquinic acid.
Since the issue seems incredibly interesting, it should become the subject of additional studies and more detailed analyses!!!
