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and OPC gradually dissolve into the wine during a continuing process of maceration. “Anthocyanin ‘and OPC dissolve even better when the alcohol starts to appear, because that's when fermentation takes place. At 1 that moment, the OPC, which is concentrated on the outside of the skins, is suddenly bathed in a mixture of water and alcohol. The mixture is relatively warm, for, as you know, heat is released dur- E ing fermentation. As a result, a considerable amount of OPC is 8 dissolved. In white wine there is only the small amount from the “ skins which passes into the grape juice after the grapes are L crushed. That is why white. wine contains 20 to 50 times less OPC than red wine.” At the end of a Wine Congress held in Bruxelles in December 1994, during which he had ‘spotlighted' the benefits of OPC; Jack Masquelier looked at the somewhat discouraged faces of French H white wine producers. Trying to reassure them, he said: "Drink Fi red wine for your health and white wine for your enjoyment." i THE FIRST OPC EXTRACT WORKED RIGHT AWAY After he had isolated his first OPC, Masquelier immediately found his extract to be in high demand. As he remembers, “I had isolated the first OPC from the skin of the peanut in 1947. My Ph.D. tutor, the faculty dean, Francis Taillaud, had just got mar- ried. His wife, who was pregnant, suffered from oedema, like 3 MATURATION It BARRELS many pregnant women do. Oedema is the result of a lowered per- 4 meability of the hair vessels. She was often very tired. = Especially, her legs were very tired and she had difficulty walking. The dean said to me: ‘We can try it out on my wife, since you demonstrated that it wasn't toxic at all.’ 2 "Well, the dean's wife was cured in 48 hours. So there had to be ¢| tones something special about my extract. Three years later, in 1950, i the first vasculo-protective medicine was developed. It was called a Resivit. It was the first vasculo-protective medicine to be based STORAGE AND AGES | on OPC—in this case, OPC from peanut skin. So you see, all this . . . . oo, goes back to 1950. It has been known for a long time." Fig. 3: Martine Baspeyras explains the making of red wine in her How OPC relates to the condition of the vascular wall is Artes thesis, “proprigiés Bénéfiques des is ce i used, explained by Masquelier as follows: "OPC is different from the There is ne raffle, hence less CPC ) famous yellow pigments, the flavonoids, because OPC attaches itself to proteins. OPC provides vascular protection because it has In 1981, Professor Masquelier presented for the first time his an affinity for one constituent of the vascular wall, collagen or coherent theory about the influence of OPC on the essential fac- elastin, i.e., proteins, whose task it is to.form the walls of the small _ tors that are determinative for the intactness of the vascular wall: capillaries as well as the arteries, the veins and the lymphatic ves- _collagen and elastin. These two building blocks of the vascular sels. These proteins make the walls solid and supple, and it is _ wall determine its elasticity and permeability. One could say that because OPC has an affinity for these substances that they attach _ collagen consists of pairs of intertwining strains of proteins, the themselves to them, activate their metabolism, their synthesis, and _ polypeptides. The stability of collagen is ascertained by the pres- prevent them from being destroyed too easily or pathologically. ence of the so-called cross-links that connect the polypeptide That's why OPC is, you could say, the vitamin of the vascular chains. The. result is a structure that looks like a ladder that is ASSEMBLING IN TAN wall." being twisted without end. OPC helps collagen with the construction of these cross-links THE WHOLE CARDIOVASCULAR PICTURE and in this manner they help to aid in the stability of the connec- In combination with the proper functioning of the heart, acom- tive tissue. Cross-links are often referred to in a negative sense, plete and unhindered blood flow is, without a doubt, the most especially when they are formed in excess under the influence of essential physiological function of the body. It is no surprise that free radicals. Excess cross-linking suffocates and stiffens the con- defects in the cardiovascular system are the reason why heart and _ nective tissue. This excessive cross-linking manifests itself in all vascular diseases are the number one killers in Western countries. the visible signs of ageing, such as wrinkles. OPC helps prevent One out of every two people (46% of all deceased men and 53% _ undesired and premature ageing by preventing over-cross-linking. af all darancad waman\ dia feam a uaceular andiar hacet dicnrdar ASSEMBLING IN TAN poTnL aD STORATE AND AGING THE WHOLE CARDIOVASCULAR PICTURE In combination with the proper functioning of the heart, a com- plete and unhindered blood flow is, without a doubt, the most essential physiological function of the body. It is no surprise that defects in the cardiovascular system are the reason why heart and vascular diseases are the number one killers in Western countries. One out of every two people (46% of all deceased men and 53% of all deceased women) die from a vascular and/or heart disorder. The condition of the vascular wall is a determinant factor in car- diac and vascular diseases. After all, the vascular system regulates the bloodstream, and the blood supply is of vital importance for all cells and organs. In this respect, it is obviously important that par- ticularly the heart muscle, the driving force of blood circulation, is copiously saturated with blood itself, since heart failure means death. . ENHANCING COLLAGEN'S BIOSYNTHESIS OPC enhances the natural renewal and production of collagen, as regulated by the body itself. But OPC cannot perform the job all by itself. Vitamin C is another vital element in the biosynthesis of collagen. In fact,.the decay of collagen due to lack of vitamin C produces all the symptoms of scurvy, since scyrvy is nothing else than collagen decay. OPC comes into the picture because it is vit- NEXUS ° 39 DECEMBER 1995 - JANUARY 1996