The Acai berry is such an amazing berry. This will tell you what makes this magical berry so good and why it is so good for us to consume. It is a technical page about the berry of which most will probably go straight over your head but it is a good read.

The Acai berry has dense pigmentation which has led to experimental studies of its anthocyanins, a group of polyphenols result in the deep colour to the Acai berry, other fruits and vegetables and are high in antioxidant value under active research for potential health benefits. A study carried out recently using a freeze dried Acai fruit pulp and skin powder found the total anthocyanin levels to be a whopping 319 mg per 100 grams. Cyandin 3 glucoside and Cyanidin 3 rutinoside are major Acai berry anthocyanins.

There are 12 other flavonoid like components was found in the Schauss et al study. A study which took place in 2006 found homoorientin, orientin, taxifolin deoxyhexose, isovitexin and scoparin as well as many other unknown flavonoids. Proanthocyanidins which is another group from the polyphenolic compounds high in antioxidant value which totalled a massive 1,289mg per 100 grams of freeze dried pulp and skin powder, with a profile similar to that found in blueberries.  Resveratrol was also found present in the Acai berry while performing these studies, although it was only at low levels of 1.1 micrograms per gram.

Another group of studies have measured the antioxidant strength in the Acai berry. Unfortunately there were sources of the Acai berry and whole fruit juice or soluble powder s which showed varying results. A recent report which showed the standardized oxygen radical absorbance capacity also referred to as ORAC analysis on a freeze dried Acai powder found that this powder contained a high antioxidant effect against peroxyl radical. This is around 10% more than that found in low bush blueberry or cranberry on a dry weight basis. The ORAC value for this freeze dried powder was substantially higher than that found in other fruit drying methods tested. Other powders with ORAC values this high include cinnamon, cloves, turmeric and dried oregano.

The same powder also showed very high activity against superoxide, with a SOD assay level of approximately 1614 units per gram. Superoxide is thought to be the initial producer or many other potent reactive oxygen species. This in turn provides the much needed protection, doing this is really important as a first point of defence for the body. Antioxidant activity against both peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radicals was another thing that was observed. While the effects were milder than that seen against peroxyl radical and superoxide the studies prior to this indicated that the total oxygen scavenging capacity assay also discovered that the Acai berry has extremely high antioxidant values when combating against peroxyl radicals as well as a high capacity against peroxynitrite, and a moderate capacity against hydroxyl radical when compared with other fruit and vegetable juices.