A Certified Laboratory Analysis

An Independent Comparison of Anti-Oxidant Values Found in Fruit & Vegetable Capsules

Assay Measurement Employed:
ORAC
(Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity)

ORAC TEST

An Overview

The test employed to measure the degree of antioxidant protection of four products containing fruits and vegetable is called the ORAC Assay.  ORAC or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity was developed at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts to measure the level of antioxidant protection of a product as well as the duration of the protection.  ORAC measures the degree which a product, in this case fruit and vegetable capsules, inhibit the action of oxidative agents and the length of time this inhibitor occurs.  The ORAC Assay integrates the strength and duration of antioxidant protection for a product into a single numerical value.  The ORAC Assay has been shown to highly correlate with the level and time of protection in cells, body tissues and blood levels.  In other words, there is a near perfect correlation between the ORAC value and the antioxidant and immune system protection in the body.  This is important because oxidative stress has been demonstrated to accelerate the aging process in both cells and blood vessels.  Oxidative stress also increases the risk of certain types of cancer, coronary heart disease and many other health maladies.

Methodology

Two encapsulated fruit and two encapsulated vegetable products were evaluated.  Two sealed bottles were labeled Fruit Caps and Vegetable Caps.  The other two sealed bottles tested were fruit and vegetable capsules from another leading brand.  All four products had been manufactured within sixty (60) days from the time of the test.  Each sample was assigned lab identification numbers.  The results of the ORAC Assay for each product were expressed in micro mole trolox equivalent per gram.  For each product the tests were performed four times to produce average or mean values.  The standard deviation, on average, approximated a relatively low 6% of the ORAC values; with the standard deviation being proportionately larger the lower the ORAC value.

Results

ORAC quantification was acheived after performing the test four times with each product (16 total samples).  The following charts depict the relative and comparative results from the testing.

The Fruit Capsules registered 3.53 times higher than the ORAC results obtained from the other leading brand fruit capsules.  Correspondingly, the Vegetable Capsules had an ORAC value which was 7.29 times the ORAC value of the other leading brand vegetable capsules.  The actual chart comparison of the products is shown in the two charts below.