Vitamin C is considered an essential nutrient because the body cannot produce it on its own. Its benefits include immunity, proper formation of bones, teeth and ligaments, promoting heart health, protecting cells from damage, wound healing, iron absorption and more.

Bioflavonoids are powerful antioxidants in their own right, they are even more powerful when combined with vitamin C, as they are in this AOR formulation. Bioflavonoids, or simply flavonoids, are the pigments found in most plants that give fruits and vegetables their colour. They are potent antioxidants that work together with vitamin C to enhance its antioxidant properties by keeping it active longer.

AOR Advantage

AOR provides a high dose of Vitamin C, enhanced with citrus bioflavonoids. Taking advantage of nature’s synergies is what makes AOR’s Vitamin C more effective than most competing supplements.

Background

Szent-Gyorgyi, the discoverer of Vitamin C, also discovered flavonoids accidentally in the late 30s. A friend given a crude vitamin C extracted from lemon found relief, but later his gums started bleeding. Szent-Gyorgyi gave a purer form of vitamin C thinking he would see better results. Instead, his friend’s gums worsened! Yet upon administration of an isolated flavonoid extract, his friend’s gums healed completely. Eventually, Szent-Gyorgy demonstrated that scurvy symptoms were due to a combined deficiency of Vitamin C and flavonoids.

The effect of flavonoids on the vitamin may be due to its ability to recycle oxidized vitamin C: when antioxidants neutralize free radicals, they become themselves weak prooxidants. Flavonoids display an “antioxidant boosting” effect, returning ascorbate to its active antioxidant form.

Bioflavonoids & Vitamin C

Flavonoids, also called bioflavonoids, are natural plant pigments. They are a group of polyphenolic antioxidant substances that are present in most plants, concentrating in seeds, bark, flowers, and fruit skin or peel. The human body cannot produce these phytochemicals, so we must get them through diet or supplementation. The chemical structure is comprised of two benzene rings on either side of a three-carbon ring. Flavonoids comprise a large and varied group, distinguished from one another by the addition of hydroxyl groups, sugars, methyl groups etc. The terminology used to clarify the various classes of flavonoids includes: flavanols, flavanones, proanthocyanins, isoflavonoids, etc. Flavonoids have a range of biological activities themselves and have a synergistic effect on Vitamin C activity.

Flavonoids were originally termed “Vitamin P”, but flavonoids are so chemically diverse that they cannot be categorized as a single nutrient. The following are some herbs whose active ingredients are classified as flavonoids:

Bilberry- anthocyanins;

Strawberries- ellagic acids;

Ginkgo- ginkgoflavone glycosides;

Turmeric- curcuminoids;

Green tea- catechins;

Hawthorn berry- proanthocyanidins;

Onions- Quercetin;

Grape seeds / skin- OPCs (oligomeric proanthocyanidins)

Research

An interesting observation was made by some Indian researchers from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences: the vitamin C in the extract of the fruit amla, which has the highest concentration of ascorbate in any plant, had over ten times the bioavailabilty of synthetic Vitamin C. Careful analysis revealed that the tannins present in the amla fruit protected and enhanced the vitamin C activity.

Usually, Vitamin C provides the measure of antioxidant activity to which all other antioxidant activity is compared. One in vitro study found that vitamin C alone did not protect rat liver cells from gamma-radiation or mitochondria from damage by SOD while amla did provide protection in both cases in a dose and concentration-dependent manner. Interestingly, vitamin C only made up a maximum of 9.4% of the water weight of the amla extract. Another study comparing the antioxidant activity of several antioxidants against vitamin C found that quercetin was more protective against DNA damage than vitamin C, but that the combination of the two was more protective than either one alone.

Other studies have found that some of the activities of the flavonoid quercetin were considerably enhanced by vitamin C.

Market Trends

Vitamin C is the most popular antioxidant and general dietary supplement. It is thought to be the “cure for all.” Sometimes an isolated component such as vitamin C is effective, but other times, an extract containing the full array of nutrients that nature provides is just what we need.

References

Ginter. E. (1995) “The role of antioxidants in the prevention of tumors”. Bratisl. Leh Lish, 96: 195-209

Miller, A. (1996). “Antioxidant flavonoids: Structure Function and Clinical Usage”. Alt. Med. Rev. 1:103-111.