Our skin is an amazing thing. Not only is it the largest organ in the human body, but it is also one of the organs that actually exists outside the body. The health of our skin therefore depends on both what we put into our bodies as well as what we put on our bodies. With so many factors affecting our skin’s health, two groups of critical items often get overlooked. They are polyphenols and phytosterols. Today we’ll talk about polyphenols and tomorrow we’ll talk about phytosterols.
What is a polyphenol?
Plants are like chemical factories producing a myriad of chemicals and compounds that help them to grow, defend themselves, reproduce and regenerate. Polyphenols are a class of organic chemicals that are produced in plants and have antioxidant benefits. There are over 4,000 antioxidant polyphenols so there is limited research on many of them. Antioxidants help to remove free radicals that appear as a result of oxidation. Antioxidants are good for us because when eaten they can help reduce inflammation and resulting problems like coronary heart disease. There is also evidence that they can help us when applied topically, such as retarding the process of skin wrinkling and aging.
We can access polyphenols and use them topically by extracting the oils of plants that manufacture polyphenols. Within the plants the polyphenols work to prevent rancidity but on our skin they do wonders. We can find three different types of polyphenols:
- Flavonoids
- Lignans, and
- Tannins
Flavonoids:
You may have heard of flavonoids before but not know exactly what they are. Flavonoids are found throughout a plant, including in the pigment of brightly colored flowers. Collectively they are known as Vitamin P and are found extensively in nature. They are powerful antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-allergic properties. Flavonoids can be found in citrus fruits, sea buckthorn, red wine, tea, berries and cocoa, just to name a few types of foods. The scientific community agrees that flavonoids have a broad impact on different layers of the skin. The top layer of our skin (stratum corneum) is full of lipids and fatty acids which can easily oxidize. Here flavonoids can go to work getting rid of free radicals that are generated as a result of oxidation. Further down into the epidermal layers flavonoids can prevent UV damage with their antioxidant properties. And in the innermost layer of skin (the dermis), they can help protect the microvessels that nourish and feed the skin. It is no wonder than many skin formulations are starting to harness these powerful antioxidants.
Lignans:
Lignans are phytoestrogens which both act as antioxidants and are estrogen-like chemicals. Lignans are present in a myriad of plants including flax seeds, sesame seeds, soybeans, pumpkin seeds and apricots. Since lignans are antioxidants, they also scavenge free radicals on our skin when applied topically.
Tannins:
If you’ve had a glass of red wine and then tasted that puckery feeling in your mouth after, then you know what a tannin is. Tannins are a bitter type of polyphenol that are astringent, and they occur in more plants than just grapes. Green tea, witch hazel, pomegranates, berries and nuts are examples of other types of plants with high levels of tannin. The medical community is just starting to investigate the uses of tannins in the body. Tannins have been shown to have potential antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic properties. They have also shown to be powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. It won’t be surprising to see more research come out in the next few years on how tannins affect skin health.