List of Content
Composition & Character
Botanical name: Pinus pinaster ssp. Atlantica (Other names – French pinus, maritime bark, pinus maritima & pygenol)
Description: The maritime pine is a medium-sized pine 20-30 m tall, exceptionally reaching 40 m. The bark is bright reddish-brown, thick, and deeply fissured (with distinct longitudinal grooves). The crown is regular, egg-shaped or conic in young pines and irregular and open in adult pines, with branches densely clothed at the ends. The needle-shaped leaves are in pairs, very stout, about 25 cm long, and bluish-green to yellowish-green. The cones are green and first and ripening glossy red-brown when 24 months old. They open slowly over the next few years or after being heated by a forest fire.
Properties & Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antibacterial, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antimetastatic and immunomodulatory.
Nutritional value: High in vitamin C and helps the body to regenerate vitamin C.
Phytochemical compounds: Pine bark extract contains polyphenolic compounds consisting of catechin, taxifolin, procyanidins of various chain lengths formed by catechin and epicatechin units, and phenolic acids.
Health Benefits Summary
- Powerful antioxidants.
- High in vitamin C.
- Immune health – Improve and modulate immune responses.
- Reduce inflammation.
- Skeletal system – Alleviate joint inflammation and prevent bone loss.
- Alleviate scurvy.
- Cardiovascular benefits – Prevent heart disease and stroke.
- Blood circulation – Improve circulation & reduce varicose veins swelling.
- Antiplatelet properties help keep platelets from sticking together.
- Promote healthy ageing.
- Eye health – Reduce the risk of cataracts and glaucoma by improving blood flow to the tiny capillaries in the eyes.
- Alleviate menopause & menopause-related symptoms
- Alleviate PMS
- Alleviate diabetes by regulating blood glucose levels.
- Respiratory system – Treat asthma and hay fever.
- Oral Health – Treat bleeding gum & prevent plaque formation
- Treat skin conditions, speed up wound healing and protect the skin from sun damage.
- Cognitive health – Treat Alzheimer’s disease, ADHD, mood and memory loss by improving brain function.
- Boost athletic performance – Sports nutrients for energy, recovery, cramps, and better blood flow to muscles.
- Reproductive system – Increases sperm count and treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood flow to the penis.
Parts used
Pine bark extract is made from the bark of maritime pine trees.
Preparation & Dosage
The bark is washed and soaked in hot water. The solids are removed from the liquid extract. The liquid extract is then further processed by freeze-drying and grinding it into a powder. Dosage range from 80mg to 500mg
Warning & Side effects
When used as prescribed, pine bark extract is safe and tolerated by most people. Talk to your health practitioner before taking Pine bark extract if you are pregnant, older, immunosuppressed, or taking other medications.
Autoimmune diseases occur when your immune system attacks your organs. Because pine bark extract can potentially boost the immune system, it could aggravate autoimmune disorders. However, recent studies indicate that pine bark extract triggers an immune response and inhibits an immune response, acting as an immune modulator.
Detailed Health Benefits
Rich in antioxidants.
Pine bark extract has more potent antioxidant properties than vitamins C, E, and coenzyme Q10.
Immune health – Improve & modulate immune responses.
Pine bark extract protects the body against chronic and degenerative diseases. It contains polyphenolic compounds that produce diverse protective effects.
Pine bark extract may have an immunomodulatory effect by regulating the immune system in the following three ways.
- It inhibits Toll-like receptor signalling by acting as an antagonist or partial agonist.
- It alters microbiota composition by directly or indirectly affecting specific microbial growth.
- It affects signal transduction by interfering with transcription factors involved in inflammatory and immune response activation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412808/
Anti-inflammatory
Cytokines are a group of pro-inflammatory molecules that your immune system releases when you get a cold or flu, suffer from injury, feel muscle pain after exercise, or struggle with a chronic health condition. Pine bark extract reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1 and IL-6, which are responsible for many of the adverse effects of chronic inflammation.
Standard medications reduce the production of prostaglandins by COX enzymes for lowering the pain; in contrast, Pine bark extract turns to the root of the problem, completely stopping the production of COX-2 in inflammation, making it a unique tool for modulating inflammatory processes.
Skeletal system – Reduce joint inflammation & prevent bone loss.
Anti-inflammatory properties in pine bark provided long-lasting positive effects, such as enhanced physical mobility and pain relief for patients with mild osteoarthritis.
Protect the skeletal system from inflammation. The polyphenols in Pine bark extract have been reported to show bone-protective activity. French maritime pine bark extract is rich in procyanidin and uniquely prevents and reverses bone loss in animal osteoporosis. Supplementation for 12 weeks in postmenopausal osteopenic women positively affected bone markers.
Alleviate scurvy
A winter after discovering Canada for France, Jacques Cartier’s exploration crew started suffering and dying from the dreadful scurvy disease in 1535. But thanks to an Iroquoian healer, they were miraculously cured by a tea made from pine bark.
Cardiovascular benefits – Prevent heart disease and stroke.
The powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect support heart health in several ways. It also improves injury related to tissue damage by suppressing oedema and infiltrating neutrophils.
Blood Circulation – Reduce varicose veins swelling.
Pine bark extract helps relieve symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency, such as leg pain and heaviness. It significantly reduces the number of varicose veins & decreases visible clusters of spider veins. It reduces venous incompetence, swelling, leg cramps, pain, and discomfort from prolonged standing.
Antiplatelet properties help keep platelets from sticking together.
Pine bark extract reduces platelet aggregation in cigarette smokers and nonsmokers. Platelet aggregation is the clumping together of platelets in the blood. Platelet aggregation is part of the sequence of events leading to the formation of a thrombus (clot). Pine bark extract reduces the risk factor for cardiovascular disease caused by clumping platelets in the blood. The bioflavonoids in pine bark extract reduce platelet aggregation stimulated by tobacco smoke.
Promote healthy ageing.
Pine bark extract has more than one effect in promoting healthy ageing. It is rich in flavonoids & antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties. Pine bark extract improves endothelial health & reduces oxidative stress. It prevents blood clots from forming and has an antihypertensive effect that supports cardiovascular health. It slows the progression of atherosclerosis, prevents venous thrombosis, and alleviates diabetes.
Pine bark extract restores seniors’ mobility from osteoarthritis by reducing pain and stiffness. It improves the cognitive functions of older people, especially spatial memory. It also reduces urinary symptoms and prostatic hyperplasia in the elderly. It may also restore erectile dysfunction in older men. The sum of these positive effects is the reason for an extended period of healthy ageing.
Brain ageing is a complex process involving changes in the brain’s structure, neuronal activity, and biochemical profile. These changes in brain function have also been linked to age-associated variations in cognitive function. It is proven that increased oxidative stress reduces cognition in older people. Therefore, the effects of antioxidants on cognitive performance are essential. The antioxidants in pine bark extract alleviate oxidative stress and improve neurocognitive function.
Eye health
Pine bark extract improves eye health by enhancing blood flow to the tiny capillaries in the eyes. It may prevent Selene-induced (age-related) cataract formation via regulating antioxidant enzymes, inhibiting m-calpain-induced proteolysis and apoptosis, and maintaining the lens’s transparency.
Bilberry extract and pine bark extract improve eye health by strengthening retina capillaries, which helps control fluid and blood leakage into the retina. This combination also positively affects eye health by improving tear secretion and antioxidant potential in people suffering from dry eye disease.
Alleviate menopause
Pine bark extract eases symptoms of women starting menopause. It alleviates fatigue, headache and vaginal dryness. Research suggests that the extract’s anti-inflammatory properties and ability to improve blood flow by enhancing blood vessel dilation contribute to easing the symptoms of menopause.
Hair density – Pine bark extract significantly increases hair density by 23% and 30% after 2 and 6 months of treatment. Photoplethysmography revealed that this beneficial effect was associated with decreased resting flux and transepidermal water loss of the scalp skin, which might indicate an improvement in microcirculation. The conclusion is that pine bark extract reduces hair loss in postmenopausal women.
Diabetes – Regulate blood sugar levels
Pine bark extract is rich in antioxidants called oligomeric procyanidins, which may assist in lowering blood glucose and improving diabetic changes in the small blood vessels. Damage to the small vessels due to high blood sugar causes considerable problems in diabetes. It assists in the healing of diabetic ulcers, reducing inflammation in vascular tissues.
Respiratory system – Treat asthma and hay fever.
The anti-inflammatory properties of Pine bark extract assist in treating chronic airway inflammation conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Asthma is caused by inflammation in the lungs, which makes it hard to breathe. In some people, lung inflammation is caused by leukotrienes, chemicals released by the body after encountering allergens. People with asthma have higher levels of leukotrienes in their blood. Studies have found that taking pine bark extract and an inhaler can reduce leukotrienes, helping to relieve lung inflammation and limit the frequency of inhaler use.
Oral Health – Treat bleeding gum & prevent plaque formation
French pine bark extract has antibacterial properties that are effective against a broad spectrum of bacterial species. It significantly reduces hydrogen sulphate-producing bacteria in saliva. Pine bark extract effectively reduces bad breath by decreasing the accumulation of tongue coating and the number of hydrogen sulphate-producing bacteria in saliva.
Treat skin conditions, speed up wound healing and protect the skin from sun damage.
Pine bark extract is very beneficial for the skin, including reducing the signs of ageing. It improves hydration and elasticity of the skin, especially in postmenopausal women. It is most effective in women that start with dry skin. Research has concluded that pine bark extract may increase production of collagen and hyaluronic acid, which are both beneficial for preventing premature skin ageing.
Pine bark extract in gel or balm speed up wound healing and reduce scar formation.
The broad spectrum healing benefits of pine bark reduce the effect of ageing on the skin. It reduces free radical formation, which is linked to premature skin ageing. It also helps with skin cell regeneration and replication.
- Reducing wrinkles from UVB rays
- Decreasing skin thickness
- Reducing skin roughness
- Improving visible signs of aging
- Protecting from UV rays
- Preventing inflammation
- Reducing redness
- Decreasing melasma areas
- Reducing discoloration
- Preventing photoaging
- Protecting against skin cancer
Cognitive health and memory
As a nootropic, Pine Bark Extract is used primarily to increase cerebral blood flow. Poor cerebral circulation causes a domino effect in the brain affecting many critical processes. Memory, cognition, and decision-making all suffer as a result. Pine bark extract improves cognitive function due to its antioxidant and neuroprotective properties and ability to fight inflammation and improve vascular health. It improves attention, memory, focus, decision-making, mood and executive functioning.
Boost athletic performance.
Pine bark extract boosts athletic performance in trained athletes. It does this by improving the time the body takes to reach a fatigued state through increased serum NAD+ levels. Additionally, athletes have endured less cramping and muscle pain when using the extract. Likely, muscle recovery time also improved due to the high antioxidants of pine bark extract.
Reproductive system
Pine bark extract increases sperm count and treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood flow to the penis. It increases the production of endothelial nitric oxide (ENOS), enzymes that help relax blood vessels in different body parts, including the penis. Good blood flow to the penis indicates good erectile health and boosts proper erection. Pine bark extract increases sperm quality and concentration, reducing the risk of male infertility. The antioxidants in pine bark extract play a role in lowering sperm damage. Pine bark extract also addresses the underlying causes of erectile dysfunction, such as diabetes. Men with diabetes are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction than those without diabetes. Pine bark extract combined with L-Arginine can increase libido.
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