Xanthones - the super antioxidant

Dede Farrell

While most people know about the antioxidant benefits of Vitamins C and E, few are aware of the incredibly potent antioxidant power of Xanthones. Xanthones are biologically active plant phenols, composed of very rigid, stable molecules that are heat and freeze resistant. Although study of the known 210 Xanthones is still considered “early science,” thorough and documented research to date shows that Xanthones have an extraordinary range of health benefits.

Xanthones demonstrate a number of pharmaceutical properties such as maintaining immune system health, promoting joint flexibility and providing positive mental support. They aid in the balancing and use of amino acids, which are essential to human metabolism. Xanthones clean the blood, repair the liver, assist the body to convert food to energy, and stop painful inflammation.

Each Xanthone shares the same molecular skeleton or backbone molecule, yet also comes with various attaching chemical groups, known as side chains. These side chains permit each Xanthone to perform many biological functions. They are extremely versatile, working together with each other's principle Xanthone to create a systemic or body-wide healthful effect.

St. John's Wort and lettuce each have two Xanthones, Vitamin E has nine and, amazingly, the Mangosteen fruit, known as Garcinia Mangostana, contains over 40 Xanthones! This number is rising as worldwide research continues on this impressive botanical, known as the Queen of the Fruits.

In 1983 scientists discovered that the anti-microbial properties of Xanthones demonstrated anti-viral, bacterial, fungal and anti-parasitic effects. In 2002, in vitro, one Xanthone, Garcinone E, outperformed the top six cancer chemotherapy agents in six days.

Xanthones inhibit the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), the good fat, helping to eliminate the danger of stroke and other heart diseases. Although oxidation commonly occurs in nature, such as producing rusted metal or the browning of fruit, it also leads to the breaking down of proper bodily functions. Each day approximately 70 trillion cells in humans receive 10,000 hits from toxins or free radicals in the environment. Xanthones are powerful free radical scavengers; strong antioxidants with the gift of an extra electron. In a hefty portion, like those found in the Mangosteen fruit, Xanthones eliminate free radical toxins by bonding with the toxin's missing electron.

Lifestyle diseases, including stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's, arthritis, stress, and diseases of the heart, liver and kidney, share the common denominator of having inflamed cells caused by oxidized toxins. New research findings reveal that chronic inflammation severely damages the immune, musculosketal, neurological, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems. Inflammation, our body's natural warning signal and defense mechanism, can go out of control, causing increased body pain and affecting brain functioning. Inflammation caused by high amounts of ammonia in the brain cells has been linked to Alzheimer's disease by many research scientists, however when the liver functions properly, ammonia molecules cannot build up in the brain tissues.

Allopathic anti-inflammatory drugs slow down inflammation by inhibiting what are known as Cox-2 enzymes. Unfortunately, these pharmaceutical approaches wipe out the necessary Cox 1 enz ymes essential for production of prostaglandins-1 that protect the GI track and delicate blood platelets. Xanthones selectively block Cox 2 leaving the Cox-1 enzymes intact, producing no known side effects. Xanthones have shown to block Protease-1 which the AIDS virus needs in order to replicate.

Xanthone-rich plants grown in the southern hemisphere, such as Mangosteen, are becoming increasingly known to mainstream science in the northern hemisphere. Just as the study of Vitamins C and E and Aloe Vera was once early science, research and mounting empirical evidence on Xanthones are further opening our awareness to the simplicity and power of food as medicine. Xanthones have been proven to assist our bodies in healing sickness and preventing disease.

See Dede Farrell’s listing in the Health Resource guide for research sites and recommended sources of Xanthones. Dede can be contacted at 503-288-5846 or starlady144@comcast.net.