Comment · Fri, June 21, 2019 · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
Pomegranate compound with anti-aging effects passes human trial
What they were answering
Bluest_waters · 1 points
this is all fine and good but nowhere does that suggest that ingesting pomegranate pulp is more effective at raising UA levels than ingesting EA itself, especially considering any punicalagins in the pomegranate powder have to be converted to EA before than can then be converted to UA.
So nothing you just posted makes me even suspect pomogranate powder is better for raising UA levels than EA would be.
In fact from the first study you linked
A higher free EA intake does not enhance its bioavailability but promotes urolithin production.
so who cares how "bioavailable" the EA is? It is still promoting UA production which is what we want.
I will stick with the EA until I see real evidence otherwise.
Furthermore this
Pomegranate Extract Improves Maximal Performance of Trained Cyclists after an Exhausting Endurance Trial: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Previous studies have observed performance improvements with an acute dosing of PE. Ellagitannin metabolites (including punicalagins) were previously studied in humans, showing a time to reach blood peak concentration of 1 h, with a clearance of 5 h for all participants [41,42]. In fact, ellagitannins are not absorbed as such; they are metabolized by the flora to yield up to 30 derived metabolites (mainly urolithins) [43].
so chasing after the bioavailability issue is a red herring altogether.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
I never suggested it did. The person you were responding to may have been trying to make that point. However, I was just linking to a study that was discussing the limitations of supplementing free EA, because I had also heard of those limitations in the past. After reading that study, I came to the conclusion it was more complex than previous studies had let on. You might be right in assuming that supplementing free EA could lead to higher concentrations of urolithin A than an extract of pomegranates. I was just explaining why he was saying that ellagic acid was not absorbed very well.
One interesting thing to note is that a 2014 study showed that Pomella, which is standardized to punicalagins, had the highest amount of antioxidant activity in comparison to a bunch of other products, including some with very high ellagic acid. This is probably where the person you were responding to was getting their information on the punicalagins vs. EA thing.
In pomegranate supplements, punicalagins A and B andellagic acid were quantified. Pomegranate supplements with thehighest content of punicalagins A and B (PM4 and PM5)showed high antioxidant activity, whereas pomegranate supple-ments with high ellagic acid showed the lowest antioxidantactivity (PM2); a highly significant correlation coefficient wasreported between pomegranate antioxidant activity by TEAC, FRAP, DPPH, or sum of methods and punicalagin A and Bcontent (Spearman’s rho = 0.90,P< 0.05). Although PM1 hadlow content of punicalagins A and B and ellagic acid, itsantioxidant activity was relatively high. It appears that otherpolyphenols or ellagitannins of larger molecular weights mayhave contributed considerably to the AA of PM1, as indicatedby the high content of total phenolics, expressed as GAE, inPM1. In fact, the AA was increased by 50% for PM1 afterdigestion compared to nondigested controls (PM1-digested,667.1±23.1 mmol TE/100 g; PM1-control, 420.6±76.2mmol TE/100 g).
That's antioxidant activity, though. Perhaps the other anti-aging effects of EA/urolithins don't affect the TEAC, FRAP, DPPH, or ORAC methods. Again, it is complicated. I don't think we have enough data to say for sure either way.