Narra extracts best antioxidant vs. various illnesses

Narra, which is abundant in the Philippines, is the country’s national tree. (File Photo: Forest and Kim Starr/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

MANILA — Extracts from Narra tree have been found to be a leading source of antioxidants to prevent diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cancer, a weakened immunity, ulcer, allergy, and other illnesses.

This was announced by a research team from De La Salle College of Pharmacy during a press conference at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City on Saturday.

The research study group used the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), a measure developed by scientists at the National Institute of Health and Aging “to measure the antioxidant capacity of different food, the research team decided to measure and compare the ORAC Scores of each process combination.”

“The ORAC Score is also the unit of measure of antioxidants which is the body’s natural defense versus harmful compounds that are linked to multiple illnesses, including weakened immunity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer,” the research team said.

The study also revealed that ”the ORAC scores of all methods tested displayed similarly high levels of antioxidant potency.”

Prof. Sigfredo Mata, contributing editor of the Narra Research Team, said “there is a list by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Narra extract, based on the ORAC score, ranks among the 10 percent of foods that have antioxidant properties.”

That means “the Narra extract is number one in the Philippines when it comes to antioxidant properties if we look at ORAC score,” he said.

Narra, which is abundant in the Philippines, is the country’s national tree.

Other members of the research team who attended the press conference were Louie Fernando Legaspi, Timothy Jay Bengala, and Dr. Alicia Catabay. (Ben Cal/PNA)