One antioxidant in particular has received a lot of attention from researchers in recent years. Lycopene is a pigment that gives vegetables and fruits, such as tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum), pink grapefruit and watermelon, their red color. It also appears to have strong antioxidant capabilities. Several studies suggest that consumption of foods rich in lycopene is associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease. In a 1995 Harvard University study conducted with 47,894 men, researchers found that eating 10 or more servings a week of tomato products was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer by as much as 34 percent. The protective effect of antioxidants on heart disease has been well documented. In a recently published study, men who had the highest amount of lycopene in their body fat were half as likely to suffer a heart attack as those with the least amount of lycopene in their body fat. Researchers have determined that the level of lycopene in body fat is an indicator of lycopene content in the diet. Lycopene is not produced in the body, so you can only obtain its benefits by eating foods rich in lycopene. Tomato products, such as spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, ketchup and pizza sauce are, by far, the major sources of lycopene in the typical American diet. In fact, these foods provide over 80 percent of the lycopene consumed in the U.S. Other fruits and vegetables such as watermelon and pink grapefruit also provide lycopene but in smaller amounts. Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. For this reason, tomato sauce is a preferable source as opposed to raw tomatoes. While most green leafy vegetables and other sources of lycopene are low in fats and oils, lycopene is insoluble in water and is tightly bound to vegetable fiber. Processed tomato products such as pasteurized tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of bioavailable lycopene from tomato based sources. Cooking and crushing tomatoes (as in the canning process) and serving in oil-rich dishes (such as spaghetti sauce or pizza) greatly increases assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. Lycopene is fat-soluble, so the oil is said to help absorption. Gac is a notable exception containing high concentrations of lycopene and also saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Lycopene may be the most powerful carotenoid quencher of singlet oxygen, being 100 times more efficient in test tube studies of singlet-oxygen quenching action than vitamin E, which in turn has 125 times the quenching action of glutathione (water soluble)(citation needed). Singlet oxygen produced during exposure to ultraviolet light is a primary cause of skin aging. Given its antioxidant p

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Used as an infusion, decoction, extract and tincture. Olive leaves have always had a reputation as a health-enhancer. Grieve’s classic ‘A Modern Herbal’: ‘The leaves are astringent and antiseptic. Internally, a decoction of 2 handsful boiled in a quart of water until reduced to half a pint has been used in the Levant in obstinate fevers. Both leaves and bark have valuable febrifugal qualities.’ Modern research is centered on the olive leaf’s powerful antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal properties, which support the immune system and yet do not harm beneficial bacteria. Olive leaf contains oleuropein and several types of flavonoids, including rutin, apigenin, luteolin. Oleuropein has been experimentally shown to decrease blood pressure and dilate the arteries surrounding the heart. Oleuropein inhibits the unhealthy oxidation of the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol. LDL oxidation is a precursor to hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Mediterranean peoples, who eat plenty of olive products, have a lower rate of atherosclerosis than people who don’t. Oleuropein is converted in brine into elenolic acid, which has been clinically shown to have antibacterial actions against several species of human-infecting bacteria. http://www.alphazee.com/olive-leaf/olea.html: James R. Privitera, M.D.: ‘And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.’ (Genesis 8 : 11) In 1854, the Pharmaceutical Journal carried a report by one Daniel Hanbury and contained the following simple healing recipe: Boil a handful of leaves in a quart of water down to half its original volume. Then administer the liquid in the amount of a wineglass every 3 or 4 hours until the fever is cured. Decades later, scientists isolated a bitter substance from the leaf and named it oleuropein. It was found to be one ingredient in a compound produced by the olive tree that makes it particularly robust and resistant against insect and bacterial damage. From a technical angle, oleuropein is an iridoid, a structural class of chemical compounds found in plants. It is present in olive oil, throughout the olive tree, and is, in fact, the bitter material that is eliminated from the olives when they are cured. In 1962, an Italian researcher reported that oleuropein lowered blood pressure in animals. This triggered a flurry of scientific interest in the olive leaf. Other European researchers confirmed this interesting finding. In addition, they found it could also increase blood flow in the coronary arteries, relieve arrhythmias, and prevent intestinal muscle spasms. Around this time, a Dutch researcher determined the active ingredient in oleuropein to be a substance he called elenolic acid. It was found to have a powerful anti-bacterial effect. By the late 1960′s, research by scientists at Upjohn, a major American pharmaceutical company, showed that

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