Pine Bark Extract Proanthocyanidins and Pine Bark Uses.

The History of PCO:Pine Bark Extracts or Grape Seed Extract?

Pine Bark Extract INCI Name Pinetree extract CAS 000000-14-0 French Marine Pine Bark Extract French Maritime Pine Bark Extract Leucoanthocyanidins OPC Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins PCO Pinus maritima Pinus pinaster Procyandiol Oligomers Procyanodolic Oligomers Pycnogenol Pygenol Pine Bark Extract.Proanthocyanidins Pinus Strobus Bark extract.Proanthocyanidin B2 photo picture image In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier was leading an expedition up the Saint Lawrence river. Trapped by ice, Cartier and his crew was forced to survive on a ration of salted meat and biscuits. Cartier's crew began to exhibit signs and symptoms of scurvy-a severe deficiency of Vitamin C. At the time, the cause of scurvy was unknown. Fortunately for Cartier and the surviving members of his crew, they came across a Native American who told them to make tea from the bark and needles of pine trees. As a result, Cartier and his men survived.

More than 400 years later, Professor Jacques Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux, France, read the book Cartier wrote detailing his expedition. Intrigued by Cartier's story, Masquelier and others believed and concluded that pine bark must contain some Vitamin C as well as be a good source of bioflavonoids which can exert Vitamin C- like effects.

The modern episode commenced 400 years later in 1950 when the French Professor Jacques Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux was doing work on bioflavonoids, read Cartiers book and recognized the signs of a bioflavonoid. Masquelier and his colleagues identified a class of bioflavonoids which he baptized with a generic name, pycnogenols.

Unfortunately, the scientific community has tended to ignore the name pycnogenols and prefers the scientific term proanthocyanidins, or oligomeric proanthocyanidin complex (OPC).

Masquelier termed the active components of the pine bark "pycnogenols". This term was used to described an entire complex of proanthocyanidin complexes found in a variety of plants including pine bark, grape seed, lemon tree bark, peanuts, cranberries and citrus peels. The term "pycnogenols" is now considered obsolete in the scientific community to describe these compounds giving way to the terms proanthocyanidins, oligomeric proanthocyanidin complexes(OPCs) and procyanidolic oligomers(PCO).

Masquelier patented the method of extracting PCOs from pine bark in France in 1951 and from grape seeds in 1970. The PCOs extract from grape seeds emerged as the preferred source based on extensive research between 1951 and 1971, as well as intensive research from 1972 to 1978. The intense research in the 1970's was conducted with the goal of gaining the approval as a medicinal agent by the French Equivalent of the FDA. Detailed analytical, toxicity, pharmacological and clinical studies were performed on the PCOs derived from grape seeds.

Both PCOs from grape seeds and pine bark have been marketed in France for decades. Sales for the grape seed extract are roughly 400 times greater than those for the pine bark.

Pycnogenols (or OPCs) are found in the bark of certain trees, in grape seeds, in many types of berries, in certain beans, etc. Because the south of France was blessed with two of the richest sources of pycnogenols--grapes and the

French Maritime Pine--Professor Masquelier had abundant raw material. In 1951, he patented a method of extracting pycnogenols from pine bark, and in 1970 extended this same technique to cover grape seed. For a number of reasons, however, all research, clinical trials, and the present French pharmaceutical form have used grape seed extract, and in France, where the product has been on the market for years, OPC from grape seeds outsells that from pine bark about 5:1.