Erika R asked:
i bought a vitamin called acia, but i have been seeing and hearing all this stuff about acia berry helping you lose weight….is it all the same…or is it different? i heard that the acia berry is supposed to clean out so is it better then just the acia vitamin? im confused!! help
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You are referring to the Açaí Palm tree. Açaí has modest antioxidant content, and may have some value in the treatment of leukemia patients.
There are at least two uses of the açaí palm for nutritional or health supplements:
(1) Heart of palm, the soft inner growing tip of some palms (Euterpe edulis, Euterpe oleracea, Bactris gasipaes), is often consumed in salads.
(2) The fruit or berry is a small, round, black-purple drupe about 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter, similar in appearance and size to a grape but with less pulp. It is found in branched panicles of 700 to 900 berries. Two crops of fruit are produced each year. The fruit has a single large seed about 0.25–0.40 inches (7–10 mm.) in diameter. The exocarp of the ripe fruits is a deep purple color, or green, depending on the kind of açaí and its maturity. The mesocarp is pulpy and thin, with a consistent thickness of 1 mm. or less. It surrounds the voluminous and hard endocarp which contains a seed with a diminutive embryo and abundant endosperm. The seed makes up about 80% of the fruit.
With regard to its antioxidant value, the primary antioxidant found in açaí is anthocyanins (3.19 mg/g). The antioxidant capacity of açaí is of intermediate quality. For a comparison, in terms of antioxidant content: acerola > mango > strawberry > grapes > açaí > guava > mulberry > graviola > passion fruit > cupuaçu > pineapple.
The average antioxidant capacity of açaí juice was ranked lower than that of 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.
Freeze-dried açaí powder was shown to have mild inhibitory effects on cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-1 and COX-2, and chemically-extracted polyphenolic-rich fractions from açaí were reported to reduce the proliferation of HL-60 (experimental leukemia) cells in vitro.
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