Anti Aging Skin Care Mag

The benefits of antioxidants for one’s body and skin are known by all. We also know that fruits and vegetables are foods high in antioxidants. The researchers report in the journal that the breakdown of chlorophyll in ripening apples and pears produces colorless decomposition products, called nonfluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes (NCC), are highly active antioxidants—making them potentially very healthy.

The beautifully colored leaves of fall are a sign of leaf senescence, the programmed cell death in plants. This process causes the disappearance of chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves their green color. In recent years, researchers working with the botanists have been able to identify the first decomposition products: colorless, polar NCCs that contain four pyrrole rings—like chlorophyll and heme.

 Now the researchers have examined the peels of apples and pears. Unripe fruits are green because of their chlorphyll. In ripe fruits, NCCs have replaced the chlorophyll, especially in the peel and the flesh immediately below it. These catabolytes are the same for apples and pears, and are also the same as those found in the leaves of the fruit trees. There is clearly one biochemical pathway for chlorophyll decomposition in leaf senescence and fruit ripening,

When chlorophyll is released from its protein complexes in the decomposition process, it has a phototoxic effect: When irradiated with light, it absorbs energy and can transfer it to other substances. For example, it can transform oxygen into a highly reactive, destructive form. As the researchers were able to demonstrate, the NCCs have an opposite effect: They are powerful antioxidants and can thus play an important physiological role for the plant.

NCCs are components of the diets of humans and they play a role in the body systems. Other previously identified important antioxidants in the peels of fruits include the flavonoids. Thus, the saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” seems to be true,
 
Source:Ripe Fruit Contains Highly Active Antioxidants