Black rice (C3G) extract a useful anti-oxidant?

Have never heard of this until seing a NYTimes infographic on longevity. Has anyone tried this? Are there studies that show its efficacy? What should it be stacked with?

Not so much an antioxidant (dietary phenols don't work that way), but as an inhibitor of CD38.

Cantó, C., & Auwerx, J. (2012). Targeting sirtuin 1 to improve metabolism: all you need is NAD+?. Pharmacological reviews, 64(1), 166-187.

The function of CD38 as an intracellular NADase was subsequently proven right when mice lacking CD38 displayed a 30-fold increase in intracellular NAD levels (Aksoy et al., 2006b). This increase in NAD levels is far superior compared with the 2-fold increases generally observed in most genetic (PARP-1 deletion), pharmacological (NAD precursors), or physiological interventions (fasting, calorie restriction) that enhance NAD content. The increase in intracellular NAD elicited by CD38 deletion significantly activated SIRT1 and prompted clinical phenotypes similar to those expected for SIRT1 activation, including protection against diet-induced obesity and a robust deacetylation of SIRT1 targets

Kellenberger, E., Kuhn, I., Schuber, F., & Muller-Steffner, H. (2011). Flavonoids as inhibitors of human CD38. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters, 21(13), 3939-3942.

The dire paucity of CD38 inhibitors, however, renders the search for new molecular tools highly desirable. We report that human CD38 is inhibited at low micromolar concentrations by flavonoids such as luteolinidin, kuromanin (cyanidin-3-O-β-glucoside) and luteolin (IC50 <10 μM).

 

Tsuda, T., Horio, F., Uchida, K., Aoki, H., & Osawa, T. (2003). Dietary cyanidin 3-O-β-D-glucoside-rich purple corn color prevents obesity and ameliorates hyperglycemia in mice. The Journal of nutrition, 133(7), 2125-2130.

Mice were fed control, cyanidin 3-glucoside-rich purple corn color (PCC), high fat (HF) or HF + PCC diet for 12 wk. Dietary PCC significantly suppressed the HF diet–induced increase in body weight gain, and white and brown adipose tissue weights. Feeding the HF diet markedly induced hypertrophy of the adipocytes in the epididymal white adipose tissue compared with the control group. In contrast, the induction did not occur in the HF + PCC group. The HF diet induced hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and hyperleptinemia. These perturbations were completely normalized in rats fed HF + PCC. An increase in the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α mRNA level occurred in the HF group and was normalized by dietary PCC. These results suggest that dietary PCC may ameliorate HF diet–induced insulin resistance in mice. PCC suppressed the mRNA levels of enzymes involved in fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis and lowered the sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 mRNA level in white adipose tissue.

 

Edited by Darryl, 01 April 2015 - 01:56 AM.

Cyanidin-3-glucoside is the standardized ingredient in ProC3G, the black rice extract that Chromadex supplies to supplement vendors.  AFIK, Swanson is the only company currently selling this; Chromadex holds patents, for whatever it is worth.  Other ingredients in black rice and assumedly the extract, include malvidin, various cyanidin glucosides, peonidin 3-glucoside, and pelargonidin 3,5-diglucoside.   They are biologically active.  I can't find the paper showing the mixed extract to be a pde5 inhibitor, but as I recall it would take at least 4 grams of the extract... the pills contain 100 grams.

a sampling from pubmed:

Hypolipidaemic effects of cyanidin 3-glucoside rich extract from black rice through regulating hepatic lipogenic enzyme activities.

Cyanidin and malvidin in aqueous extracts of black carrots fermented with Aspergillus oryzae prevent the impairment of energy, lipid and glucose metabolism in estrogen-deficient rats by AMPK activation.

I agree with Darryl about C3G physiologically not acting as an anti-oxidant but as a CD38 inhibitor (among other things).

20 bucks for 6 gr of an extract containing ~2 g of actual C3G? Sometimes supplements just can't beat natural food. I get 1 kg of dried chokeberries here for the same price, containing 1-2% (10-20 g) of C3G, as well as 2-4% (20-40 g) oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPC). Or, alternatively, 4 kg of actual organic black rice from Italy, containing about 0.5% (20 g) of C3G, as well as plenty of γ-oryzanol. C3G is diminished by cooking, but you can reduce the loss by adding a bit of vinegar to the water.

Sorry Timar, but you can't beat aronia prices in Poland, which is the world's biggest producer (about 90% market share)   You can get 1 kg of fresh aronia for 1 USD (or less if you buy a few kilos)!

Edited by Iporuru, 01 April 2015 - 07:33 PM.

Have you some time left this autumn? I'm planning on a trip to Poland

Come along! I'm stocked up!