Ellagitannins - nature, occurrence and dietary burden

✍ Scribed by Clifford, Michael N; Scalbert, Augustin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 129 KB
• Volume: 80
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(20000515)80:7<1118::aid-jsfa570>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

The occurrence of ellagitannins in common foodstuffs is limited to a few fruit and nut species. Dietary intake of ellagitannins is largely explained by the consumption of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. No reliable ®gures are available for the ellagitannin burden, but it will probably not exceed 5 mg day À1 . Their bioavailability is not well de®ned. A fraction of the ellagitannins ingested is hydrolysed in the gut and the resulting ellagic acid absorbed and metabolised, but whether intact ellagitannins are absorbed is not clear. There are apparently con¯icting claims for bene®cial and toxic effects caused by ellagitannins, ellagic acid or ellagitannin-containing extracts in various animal species including rodents and ruminants. It seems unlikely that normal consumption can cause toxic effects in man, but any attempt to increase the intake signi®cantly in pursuit of the suggested bene®ts should be resisted until the metabolism and pharmacokinetics are better understood.