Infos on OPC
OPC is available in fruit and vegetables with a skin of dark red, dark blue or dark green colour, in the bark of certain trees, such as the mediterranean pine and also in red wine.
Bioactivities for simple Monomers have not been verified.— However, a convention for a clear definition of the difference between Oligomeres (OPC), Polymers, and/or Tannins has not yet been achieved by the Nutrition-.Supplement-Industry.
OPC is the abbreviation for a group of polyphenols belonging to the large family of secondary plant products.
-
OPC is the abbreviaton for the scientifically called “Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins”. These are compounds of Flavan-3-ol-Molecules, the proanthocyanidins, which occur either in “packs” of two, three, four and seldom as a five or seven “pack”.
-
The most important bioactivity of the proanthocyanidins is their anti-oxidative effect upon free radicals.
-
When proanthocyanidins occur singly they are defined as monomers.--In a “pack” of two they are defined as Dimeres and so on. The word “Oligo” is derived from Greek and stands for“several”, (more than one.) A simple translation of the word “Oligomeric proanthocyanidins“ for non chemists is: “Proanthocyanidins in a manifold pack”.- Compounds of more than seven monomers are defined as being a Polymers and / or Tannins.
Therefore every producer can blow his own trumpet causing great confusion for the costumers.
