Health Benefits, Side Effects & Dosage

Have you ever wondered how berries get their varied and bright colours?

The answer is all in the pigment which lies in their skin!

These richly collected cells in the skin of berries which give the skin their bright colours, are the home for a variety of biological compounds. One of which is a specific flavonoid, which we will discuss here as a source of a plethora of health benefits.

Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids) are a group of molecules created during plant metabolism. In fact there are 6,000 different types of these metabolites (1). There are a number of different health benefits ascribed to these molecules including anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

This article will examine one particular member of this group, one which has even been deemed the most important of the flavonoids (2); and the one making up the key structure of the pigment in fruits.

This article will discuss Anthocyanin and how it can boost your health and performance.

What Is Anthocyanin?

In truth, anthocyanin is similar to but not exactly a flavonoid. Instead it is part of the flavonoid group of phytochemicals (naturally occurring chemicals in plants).

There are about 17 anthocyanidins in total, with six (cyanidin, delphinidin, petunidin, peonidin, pelargonidin, and malvidin) having the most importance to humans (3-4).

They occur naturally in a variety of fruits and vegetables, but are particularly concentrated in a number of berries (e.g. strawberry, cherry, raspberry, blueberry). The anthocyanidins exist as the pigment which gives berries their colour (5-6); and as such are normally sufficiently consumed by most people (7-8).

Historically they have been utilised for remedies of a diverse number of diseases, including high blood pressure, vision disorders and infections just to name few (179-10). As such, proliferating their reputation as all around super supplement.

Oral consumption of anthocyanin in fruit, extracts or supplements has proved to be effective in preventing or treating such diseases (11-13). .

How Do Anthocyanins Work?

? Anti-oxidant 

Oxidative stress is a state where the quantities of free radical atoms (reactive oxygen species) are greater than the capacity of anti-oxidants (compounds which delay or inhibit oxidation by free radicals). This imbalance leads to oxidation of proteins, lipids and even DNA (14).

The degree of anti-oxidant activity of anthocyanins have been widely confirmed (15-18).

However, the ability of anthocyanins to counteract reactive oxygen species is different between one type to another, and is wholly dependent upon each compound’s chemical structure (19). Each type of anthocyanin may react differently to a different type of free radical, which some what leads to differing research results.

Unfortunately some of the positive experimental (in vitro) studies showing high anti-oxidant capacity (20-23) are not entirely supported by human food trials (24).

However, it is possible that  very  low  concentrations  of  anthocyanins  may also modulate  cell  signalling and other  biological processes  by  non-antioxidant mechanisms which may explain the difficulty in observing anti-oxidant effects in human trials.

? Anti-inflammatory

Studies have also shown that anthocyanins may have an anti-inflammatory role via a number of cellular mechanisms (5).

Anthocyanins inhibits the  biological  activity  of  some  pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines  by  suppressing  specific cellular signalling pathways  (20,25).

For example, they can work to inhibit the pro-inflammatory enzyme, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) which is often responsible for pain (26-27).

In truth it is the combined anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory cellular activity which facilitates the clinical uses of anthocyanin when treating disease.