Grape escape

There's an intriguing footnote to history as well as cutting-edge science in an article at a Web site that bills itself as "the pre-eminent consumer health site in South Africa". The article, "Peanut waste to rival grape seeds?" notes that antioxidant compounds found in "green tea, fruit, vegetables and red wine, have been linked to a wide range of health benefits, including reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers," and that a once important source of antioxidant compounds, peanut skins, fell by the wayside when "import practices changed for the benefit of oil producers so that peanuts from Africa were more likely to be shipped ready-shelled, [and] fewer peanut skins were available."

The news source was a study, published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis led by Dr. Jianmei Yu of the SAES.

The findings of Yu's research team has led another high-traffic Web portal to announce that "Peanut skin, a waste product from peanut butter manufacturers, is a rich source of extractable procyanidins and could create a cheaper source of these antioxidant compounds to rival the grape seed dominated polyphenols market."

Posted May 10, 2006 04:25 PM

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