Health Benefits of Oryzanol

Oryzanol is one of the several minor components found in the unsaponifiable fraction of ricebran oil. It is a mixture of two or more ferulic acid ester of triterpene alcohols, viz. cycloartenyl ferulate, 24-methylene cycloartanyl ferulate, b-sitosteryl ferulate and campesteryl ferulate. The ferulic acid is 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy cinnamic acid.

Most of the biological activities of oryzanol are because of its excellent antioxidant property. Studies indicate that this phenolic antioxidant scavenges oxygen free radicals and prevent their formation inside our body metabolic process. The benefits resulting from this antioxidant activity are prevention against cancer, protection against heart disease by maintaining optimum cholesterol level and other factors like combating respiratory problems, diabetic health etc.. This particular unsaponifiable material is considered to be an important factor in hypocholesterolemic and hypolipidemic action of rice bran oil. Studies indicated that oryzanol fed to humans and animals reduced LDL cholesterol and increased HDL cholesterol. It has been reported that hypertriglyceridaemia induced by fructose was significantly lower in animals which had been maintained on a diet containing 0.5% of this compound.

One of the important beneficial biological functions this specific minor component of ricebran oil is reduction of elevated serum TSH levels in hypothyroid patients which possibly by a direct action at the hypothalamus rather than the pituitary. Oral administration of this natural antioxidant to the patients with primary hypothyroidism lowered serum TSH by 20-30% in 1-4h.

Other advantages are prevention of coronary atherosclerosis induced by sonic stress, effective in correcting certain symptoms due to aging such as vegetative stigmata and gastrointestinal neurosis, therapeutic agent for unidentified clinical syndrome, increase of the concentration of norepinephrine and dopamine in the median eminence but not in other nuclei, inhibition of platelet aggregation, inhibition of ion induced lipid peroxidation, effective against lipogenic liver cirrhosis in the spontaneously hypersensitive rats, inhibits gastric lesions induced by both conditional emotional stimuli and rapid eye movement sleep deviation in mice, suppression of the pituitary hormone secretion, effective agents for prostaglandin metabolism in the vascular wall and platelets, prevents the development of vascular lesions such as atheroscelerosis.

Source by Neelakamal Mohapatra

via Paleohacks Paleo Cookbook Review http://paleohackscookbook.com/health-benefits-of-oryzanol-2/