A FRIENDLY SKEPTIC LOOKS AT AÇAI

The Moss Reports ^ | Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

[Coleus]

I'm sitting here sipping a bottle of Bossa Nova açai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) juice, which according to the label is "nature's healthiest, highest antioxidant fruit. "The "original" and "pure" juice is sweetened with agave, a kind of cactus. It's hard to describe the taste: a little like pomegranates and blueberries, with a touch of pear. It's good and I will definitely drink it again, although I don't feel any compulsion to rush back to the market to buy it.

This isn't your father's Concord grape juice. Fruit juices now come with scientific data printed right on the bottle! This one has a chart showing that açai has an ORAC score (oxygen radical absorbance capacity – a measure of the antioxidant potency of a food or beverage) of 167 per gram of fruit compared to 106 for pomegranate and 32 for the one-time record holder, blueberries. At $2.00 per 10 ounce bottle, açai is not cheap, but it is no more expensive than pomegranate or other specialty juices.

Readers have asked for my assessment of this juice as a purported treatment for cancer and other illnesses.

First, I shall try to explain what açai juice is, and then discuss its possible uses in medicine. Açai (whose scientific name is Euterpe oleracea) is a tall, slim, solitary tree, which, in tropical locations, can grow to a height of 65 feet. It has an attractive crown of drooping leaves and is quite useful to the indigenous people of Latin America as a source of both food and cash. Its young leaf buds are eaten like cabbage, hence another name, cabbage palm.

Its round berries grow in bunches and turn from green to black as they mature. Despite much clear cutting, the açai palm is still abundant in Brazil and Guyana. This tree is better known as the source of "hearts of palm," an exotic vegetable exported from Brazil to many countries around the world. It is quite delicious, so much so in fact that environmentalists worry that this export trade has accelerated destruction of this once-abundant species. But what now makes açai a subject of intense interest in the United States is not its worth as a culinary novelty but its purported value as a health tonic.

Poor Man's Treat

Açai juice was long known as a poor man's treat, nice tasting but nutritionally unimpressive. But thanks to sophisticated marketing, it has now become the latest contender in the "functional drink" category. Web sites hail it as a "phyto-elixir," "the next nutritional breakthrough," "Amazon's Viagra," "the natural alternative to Vioxx and Celebrex for joint and arthritis pain, "a "veritable feast of antioxidants," to quote some over-the-top Web sites.

In recent years, the world has witnessed a succession of such drinks, all following the same reliable moneymaking pattern. A multi-level marketing (MLM) company hunts down a fruit drink that is consumed in some (from the American perspective) out-of-the-way place, ideally an unknown and barely accessible Third World country. The company preferably establishes an exclusive or near exclusive supply (to confound potential competitors) and then touts the health benefits of the drink to the sky. Armed with a flood of breathless publicity, it simultaneously establishes a network of "downline" salespersons ready to sell friends and family on the new cure-all.

Such was the basis of the phenomenal success in the 1990s of Tahitian noni juice (with allegedly over $2 billion in product sold), followed by the similar sales pitches for Mangosteen, XanGo, etc. But people quickly grow weary of any over-touted "cure" and the public now seems ready to let go of XanGo. It is last year's news. America (and, for a host of complex cultural reasons, this is mainly an American phenomenon) is ready for a new health drink fad. And it looks like açai is it.  According to Web sites recruiting potential salespeople, açai is a "stunning, new product category with ZERO competition...."(This was clearly written before Bossa Nova launched its mass-marketed açai into stores in September 2005.) The sales pitch for the network marketing version plays on making money, of course, but also on an altruistic desire to help the less fortunate:

"What if you could make thousands of dollars per month by sharing a remarkable new health drink from the Amazon, all while protecting the rainforest, indigenous tribal customs, and helping local economies?" one site asks.

It's an irresistible combination. Cure the sick, aid the poor, heal the environment, while also making a good deal of money in the process — what could be better?

Anti-Aging Food?

As stated, the promotional material for açai reads like a rerun of what was formerly said about other billion-dollar juice drinks. If you visit one of the many Internet sites on the topic of açai juice (128,000 at last count!) you will be regaled with stories of how the fruit contains antioxidants, amino acids, and "essential omegas," i.e., health-promoting fatty acids. We are told that it has 10 to 30 times the amount of anthocyanins as red wine. It can be purchased as a capsule, powder, concentrate, or in "organic smoothie" drinks.

In 2004, açai was featured in the Wall Street Journal, on NBC's Today Show, and most importantly on the Oprah Show. There, Dr. Nicholas Perricone, MD, claimed that açai was the number one most nutritious and powerful anti-aging food in the world. As regular daytime viewers know, Oprah is a big fan of Dr. Perricone. (She has said "The Perricone Promise is the book everyone must own...no matter what their age.") And millions of people are big fans of Oprah and are strongly influenced by her recommendations.

Dr. Perricone was not well known before appearing on Oprah. He interned in pediatrics at Yale University, New Haven, and did a dermatology fellowship at Ford Medical Center. He is not a major contributor to the scientific literature, but has become a hugely popular health writer, whose best selling books including The Perricone Weight-loss Diet, The Perricone Prescription and The Wrinkle Cure.

Oprah herself has been in the news recently because of her unrestrained enthusiasm for James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, a purportedly non-fiction book that contains sections that were entirely a product of the author's imagination. Oprah’s endorsement of Frey's book helped push it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list where (despite the revelations of this misbranding) it remains. In a sense, it was Oprah Winfrey, via Dr. Perricone, who also elevated açai to its position of "Superfood No. 1." Dr. Perricone has now even opened a store, the N.V. Perricone M.D. flagship, on tony Madison Avenue in New York City. (I assume by its name that other such stores are in the works.) This is described as "an elegant, prestigious yet inviting atmosphere allowing the Perricone brand and Dr. Perricone's vision to be properly shared and communicated so that you can take ownership of your health."

Here is what Dr. Perricone says about açai:

"Harvested in the rainforests of Brazil, açai tastes like a vibrant blend of berries and chocolate. Hidden within its royal purple pigment is the magic that makes it nature's perfect energy fruit. Açai is packed full of antioxidants, amino acids and essential fatty acids. Although açai may not be available in your local supermarket, you can find it in several health food and gourmet stores (often in juice form). A new product featuring the unsweetened pulp is now also available, and I highly recommend that you choose this form of açai."

Welcome to the 21st century, where doctors write advertising copy for fancy fruit juices and open boutiques on Madison Avenue to sell their branded wares.

Scientific Basis

Is there any scientific backing for the health claims made for açai products?

Here are some basic facts. The nutritional content of açai is 1-4 percent protein, 7-11 percent fats, 25 percent sugar, 0.05 percent calcium, 0.033 percent phosphorous, and 0.0009 percent iron. Açai also has small amounts of sulphur, vitamin B1 and E and beta carotene. It delivers 88 to 265 calories per 100 grams, depending on the source and preparation method.

A PubMed search for Euterpe oleracea reveals half a dozen relevant articles, but none clinical in nature. In fact, none has anything to say about its alleged health-promoting properties, except in the most general terms. Yes, it has antioxidants and antioxidants are good for you. But it is a far stretch to claim that this juice or its constituents will cure any disease.

Simply put, I can discover no scientific basis whatsoever for making medical or health promoting claims for açai. Nor is its traditional usage of much help. In the Brazilian Amazon, hungry Indian forest tribes use every part of the tree. They eat the tasty heart of palm, turn the fruit into a drink, eat the leaves as a kind of cabbage, and finally use the fronds to thatch their houses. Excess fruit is sometimes taken to town as a cash crop. Açai juice is understandably popular among the poor, for the obvious reason that it is abundant and free for the taking.

There is talk on the Web of some broad folk medicine usages. "In traditional Brazilian herbal medicine," says Leslie Taylor, ND, writing at www.rain-tree.com, "the oil of the fruit is used to treat diarrhea; an infusion of the root is used for jaundice and to build the blood; an infusion of the grated fruit rind is used as a topical wash for skin ulcers; and, the fruit seeds are crushed and prepared in an infusion for fevers."

"In the Peruvian Amazon," Taylor continues, "an infusion of the toasted crushed seeds is used for fever, and a decoction of the root is used for malaria, diabetes, hepatitis and jaundice, hair loss, hemorrhages, liver and kidney diseases, menstrual pain, and muscle pain."  That's quite a line-up. But bear in mind that this is just by reputation, not by systematic study. Such traditional usage is not a guide to current-day practice but merely a pointer towards what one might find upon truly scientific examination.

Meanwhile, the fruit liquid "is not really that nutritious in comparison to many other fruit juices," according to Dr. Taylor. The dark purple color of the fruit is due to the presence of certain polyphenols. Since the mature fruit is dark purple or black in color it comes as no surprise that one of the main chemical constituents is anthocyanin, a type of flavonoid that is widely distributed in plants and also lends a red to purple color to grapes, blackberries, and raspberries. According to a German study, anthocyanin contributes only about 10 percent of the antioxidants in the juice, so "obviously, compounds not yet identified are responsible for the major part of the antioxidant capacities of the acai fruit pulp" (Lichtenthaler 2005).

According to Dr. Taylor, "the anthocyanin in açai is highly unstable and degrades easily in the presence of heat, humidity, as well as in the presence of enzyme actions of other chemicals in the fruit. This makes açai fruit highly perishable; it readily changes in color, taste, and anthocyanin content with even short term (12 hours) refrigerated storage." So even to get this rather generic benefit the product would have to be handled with exemplary care. This fact is not mentioned in the publicity material I have seen for the juice.

Furthermore, the antioxidants in açai are not necessarily as potent as has been claimed. One of the few scientific studies on the topic found that "the antioxidant capacities of all purple açai samples were found to be excellent against peroxyl radicals, good against peroxynitrite and poor against hydroxyl radicals compared with common European fruit and vegetable juices recently analyzed" (Lichtenthaler 2005).  As indicated, açai has not been the subject of any studies to determine its biological activity, according to Dr. Taylor, since (despite the general folk usages) it isn't traditionally used for any specific type of medical condition, such as cancer.  There are a few laboratory studies concerning açai and cancer in the literature. One study reports that phenolic and anthocyanin compounds from this fruit have the ability to retard the growth of cancer cells in the test tube (in vitro). But Dr. Taylor points out, "As all the chemicals extracted from açai for this study were well known chemicals (no novel chemicals found yet in açai) found in other common fruits and plants and which had similar in vitro cancer cell studies performed, this was not anything profound or new."

Last month, a team at the University of Florida showed that extracts from açai berries triggered a self-destruct response (apoptosis) in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested, according to Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (Nordlie 2006). The team is also conducting a study to test the effect of açai in healthy human volunteers.  But Prof. Talcott cautioned: "This was only a cell-culture model and we don't want to give anyone false hope." In fact, many fruit juices contain antioxidants and other phytonutrients, which have promise in the prevention of diseases including cancer. At the same time, they also contain lots of sugar, natural or added, and this could be a problem for those who are prone to type II diabetes, weight gain, and some other health conditions. Thus fruit juice (even when not sweetened) should be used in moderation. Despite the raw ORAC score, the quality of the antioxidants in açai seems somewhat more limited than those in other products.

I was quite satisfied with my $2 bottle of açai juice from Bossa Nova and will probably buy it again some day. But I see absolutely no reason, in the absence of rigorous scientific proof, to shell out $39 or more for a bottle of açai juice when one can get plenty of antioxidants from grapes, berries or pomegranates at a fraction of that cost.  It should go without saying that you should not rely on this juice to treat cancer or any serious medical condition. One or two laboratory tests do not constitute proof of clinical benefit. In fact, any suggestion that açai juice can cure any serious disease is entirely without foundation and is probably the prelude to a rip-off.


--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Del Pozo-Insfran D, Brenes CH, Talcott ST. Phytochemical composition and pigment stability of Acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.). J Agric Food Chem. 2004;52:1539-1545.

Cordova-Fraga T, de Araujo DB, Sanchez TA, et al. Euterpe Oleracea (Acai) as an alternative oral contrast agent in MRI of the gastrointestinal system: preliminary results. Magn Reson Imaging. 2004;22:389-393.

Hassimotto NM, Genovese MI, Lajolo FM. Antioxidant activity of dietary fruits, vegetables, and commercial frozen fruit pulps. J Agric Food Chem. 2005;53:2928-2935.

Lichtenthaler R, Rodrigues RB, Maia JG, Papagiannopoulos M, Fabricius H, Marx F. Total oxidant scavenging capacities of Euterpe oleracea Mart. (Acai) fruits. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2005;56:53-64.

Nordlie, Tom. Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows. University of Florida News, January 12, 2006. Available at:
http://news.ufl.edu/2006/01/12/berries/

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