Health Benefits of the Acai Berry

Most of the research to date on acai has focused on a particular freeze-dried form of Acai Berry referred to as Opti-acai. This powder preparation of freeze-dried acai fruit pulp and skin it has calcium, iron, and Vitamin A, as well as aspartic acid and glutamic acid.

Acai has an exceptional content of fats, including oleic acid, palmitic acid, and linoleic acid, and also contains a high amount of beta-sitosterol. These oil compartments in acai fruit harbor dense contents of polyphenols, much like Green Tea such as procyanidin oligmers and vanillic acid, syringic acid, hydroxybenzoic acid, protocatechuic acid, and ferulic acid which were shown to degrade substantially during storage or exposure to heat, so keeping acai berry or cooking it is difficult.

A powdered preparation of freeze-dried acai fruit pulp and skin was shown to contain anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity of acai is about 10%. The powdered preparation was also reported to contain twelve flavonoid-like compounds, including homoorientin, orientin, taxifolin, deoxyhexose, isovitexin, scoparin, as well as proanthocyanidins, and low levels of resveratrol.

In a study of different acai varieties for their antioxidant capacity, a white species displayed no antioxidant activity against different oxygen radicals, whereas the purple variety most often used commercially was excellent against peroxyl radicals, good against peroxynitrite and poor against hydroxyl radicals.

Freeze-dried acai powder was found to have high antioxidant activity against superoxide and peroxyl radicals and milder activity for peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radicals. The powder was reported to inhibit hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidation in neutrophils, and to have a slight stimulatory effect on nitric oxide production by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages in vitro.

Extracts of acai seeds were reported to have antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radicals, similar to the capacity of the pulp, with higher antioxidant capacity against peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radicals.[8]

When three commercially available juice mixes containing unspecified percentages of acai juice were compared for in vitro antioxidant capacity against red wine, tea, six types of pure fruit juice, and pomegranate juice with added antioxidants, the average antioxidant capacity was ranked lower than that of the antioxidant enhanced pomegranate juice, Concord grape juice, blueberry juice, and red wine. The average was roughly equivalent to that of black cherry or cranberry juice, and was higher than that of orange juice, apple juice, and tea.

Studies have demonstrated that blood antioxidant capacity increases within two hours of consuming a commercial acai juice. Acai berry has 15-20 times the antioxidants (anthocyanins) that red grapes have.