PomGuard^TM

PomGuard™ from Jarrow FORMULAS@ and Pomegranate Health™ represents a new standard in pomegranate and antioxidant dietary supplements. Using patented technology developed by Ephraim Lansky, M.D., PomGuard is the only supplement to combine the beneficial compounds from the juice, seed, and peel into a single capsule. Dr. Lansky initiated the first published study linking pomegranates to cardiovascular health in 1998, and he has made a series of ground-breaking discoveries about the synergistic properties of the fruit since then. Dr. Lansky's research has been exclusively utilized in developing PomGuard. Only PomGuard contains the complete spectrum of beneficial pomegranate phytonutrients.

Fermented Juice for Enhanced Bioavailability

The remarkably potent antioxidant properties of pomegranate juice are derived from its polyphenolic compounds, specifically its tannins and flavonoids. In the fresh juice, all of these compounds are bound tightly to

sugars that must be digested before absorption of the attached nutrients can take place. However, when the juice is fermented, the polyphenol-sugar bonds are naturally and gently broken via a process known as zymolysis. In the fermented pomegranate juice, the same polyphenols exist in free forms that can help reduce oxidative stress on the arteries. When tested side by side, fermented pomegranate juice (with the alcohol removed) is a far more potent antioxidant source than is fresh pomegranate juice. So we used only fermented (alcohol-free) pomegranate juice in PomGuard.

Historical Uses of the Pomegranate

Use of the pomegranate to support health dates back to Biblical times and the fruit still is used by Middle Eastern, Asian, and South American cultures in which healers employ the bark, leaves, peel, juice and seeds to treat many health conditions. Much of this knowledge was brought back to Europe in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. For instance, the British Medical Association features the pomegranate in its coats of arms and the Royal College of Physicians of London had adopted it in their coat of arms by the middle of the sixteenth century. However, this fruit has been overlooked by modern Western medicine until very recently.

Antioxidant Activity

Pomegranate juice is higher than tea and red wine in antioxidant activity. Indeed, in laboratory tests of Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), a standard for antioxidant capacity, fresh pomegranate fruit and juice preparations surpassed the antioxidant activities not just of green tea and red wine, but also that of cranberry, blueberry and grape juices, all of which have been touted for their scavenging properties against free radicals. Fermented juiceoutperforms regularpomegranate juice by supplying more bioavailable antioxidants due to the action of fermentation in releasing compounds otherwise bound to sugars. The mixture of fermented juice, peel and membrane plus seed oil also contains approximately 20% pure pomegranate seed lignins.

These lignins complement phenolic antioxidants, such as ellagic and gallic acids, by acting as powerful scavengers of both oxygen and nitric oxide free radicals.

It would be a mistake to think that one can simply concentrate on one of these antioxidants and ignore the others. In nature, which is to say, in all living organisms, it is always necessary to maintain balance. Thus, in plants powerful phenolic antioxidants typically are associated with lignins and other compounds.

Moreover, the superiority of antioxidant mixtures to single antioxidants long has been known. In a series of studies, the antioxidant power of potent pure chemicals, notably ellagic acid, was compared to (a) the antioxidant or cardioprotective action of complex tannins like punicalagin, (b) mixtures of punicalagin and other large pomegranate tannins, and (c) pomegranate juice. Even though compounds like punicalagin were individually more potent antioxidants than the other compounds in the complex tannin mixture or in pomegranate juice, the tannin mixtures were more potently antioxidant than any single compound, and the whole pomegranate juice was more potently antioxidant than the tannin mixture

Studies and Benefits

*Pomegranate has been shown to provide numerous benefits.

For instance, the juice and other fractions are known to:
• Decrease low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) oxidation by fifty percent or more
• Enhance cellular (macrophage) glutathione
• Help maintain healthy blood platelet activity
• Reduce the level of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), an enzyme involved in blood pressure regulation
• ıSupport normal cell function and replication
• Induce apoptosis in certain types of abnormal cells
• Block enzymes that contribute to cartilage degradation, such as lipoxygenase, and to stimulate collagen synthesis

Clinical trials with pomegranate juice undertaken at the University of California, at Israeli universities and elsewhere have shown significant favorable results in patients with high blood pressure, ischemic coronary heart disease (CHD), artery wall thickening and many other conditions.

Useage and Safety

Take 1-2 capsules per day after meals, or as directed by your health care professional. PomGuard is 100% natural with no known side effects.

References

• Adams LS, Seeram Np, Aggarwal BB, Takada Y, Sand D, Heber D. Pomegranate Juice, total pomegranate ellagitannins, and punicalagin suppress inflammatory cell signaling in colon cancer cells. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Feb 8;54(3):980-5.
• Jiang Y, Satoh K, Aratsu C, Kobayashi N, Unten S, Kakuta H, Kikuchi H, Nishikawa H, Ochiai K, Sakagami H. Combination effect of lignin F and natural products. Anticancer Res. 2001 ;21 (2A):965-70.
• Lansky Ep, Harrison G, Froom P, Jiang WG. Pomegranate (Punica granatum) pure chemicals show possible synergistic inhibition of human PC-3 prostate cancer cell invasion across Matrigel. Invest New Drugs. 2005;23:121-2. Erratum in: Invest New Drugs. 2005;23:379.
• Pantuck AJ, Leppert JT, Zomorodian N. et al. Phase II Study of Pomegranate Juice for Men with Rising Prostate-Specific Antigen following Surgery or Radiation for Prostate Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2006 JuI1;12(13):4018-4026.
• Prosky L. When is dietary fiber considered a functional food? Bio/actors. 2000;12(1-4):289-97.
• Rosenblat M, Volkova N, Coleman R, Aviram M. Pomegranate byproduct administration to apolipoprotein e-deficient mice attenuates atherosclerosis development as a result of decreased macrophage oxidative stress and reduced cellular uptake of oxidized low-density lipoprotein. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Mar 8;54(5):1 92S-35.
• Seeram Np, Adams LS, Henning SM, Niu Y, Zhang Y, Nair MG, Heber D. In vitro antiproliferative, apoptotic and antioxidant activities of punicalagin, ellagic acid and a total pomegranate tannin extract are enhanced in combination with other polyphenols as found in pomegranate juice. J Nutr Biochem. 2005;16: 360-7.
• Sumner MD, Elliott-Eller M, Weidner G, Daubenmier JJ, Chew MH, Marlin R, Raisin CJ, Ornish D. Effects of pomegranate juice consumption on myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary heart disease. Am J Cardiol. 2005 Sep 15;96(6):810-4.
• Syed DN, Malik A, Hadi N, Sarfaraz S, Afaq F, Mukhtar H. Photochemopreventive effect of pomegranate fruit extract on UVA-mediated activation of cellular pathways in normal human epidermal keratinocytes. Photochem Photobiol. 2006 Mar-Apr;S2(2):39S-405.
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