***OPC Results and Conclusions***

Antioxidant activity

The ECA chromatograms represent a comparison of MASQUELIER's Original PINE BARK OPC and another leading brand pine bark product. Test conditions and amounts of samples were identical. Results are displayed on the same scale. Both samples exhibit comparable positions of peaks, confirming that both samples are extracts originating from similar source pine bark materials. However the other leading brand pine bark extract (sample #14 in the Antioxidant Table) has significantly lower amounts of antioxidant compounds per unit weight. The rest of the sample #14 extract is likely to be non-antioxidant inert material.

Antioxidant capacity

The ACAP-Trolox test was performed in addition to the ECA test to establish a more balanced and certain assessment of the antioxidant nature of the samples. Because no single test can give a reliable impression of the antioxidant capacity of a product, we used two reproducible and controllable tests to evaluate antioxidant character of the samples. The fluorescein-derivative antioxidant comparison with Trolox shows that the tested leading brand pine bark-based extract (sample #14) has a little more than half the antioxidant capacity (55%) of MASQUELIER's Original PINE BARK OPC (sample #6). The Trolox test confirms that sample #14 is in the mediocre grape seed extract category.

Electro Chemical Activity (ECA) profiles of MASQUELIER's Original PINE BARK OPC and leading brand pine-bark based extract.

Relative values of 10 grape seed samples compared to
MASQUELIER's Original Grape Seed OPC
&
MASQUELIER's Original Pine Bark OPC
and
another leading Pine Bark-based product (sample #14)
expressed in percentages

When brought in comparison with MASQUELIER's Original OPC and 10 "grape seed extracts" (the 1997 comparative analysis), pine bark-based sample #14 scores 55% on the ACAP-Trolox scale. Sample #14 scores 23% on the Electrochemical Activity scale. Sample #14 is only 30% as electrochemically active as MASQUELIER's Original PINE BARK OPC and it is only 23% to 26% as electrochemically active as MASQUELIER's Original GRAPE SEED OPC. The lower antioxidant activity of sample #14 implies that a much higher dose of this product would be needed to achieve an effect comparable to that of MASQUELIER's Original PINE BARK OPC.

Pine bark-based sample #14 belongs in the category of the lower quality generic grape seed extracts.

Routine Quality testing

When dissolved in water or other specific test-liquids, the limpidity (clearness, transparancy) of the solutions provides a simple and good, easy to check indicator of the quality and purity of MASQUELIER's Original OPC. Qualified manufacturers standardly perform these solubility tests to check and monitor the purity of their products. The level of insolubles in OPC type extracts is an indicator of low quality and/or production problems. High quality OPC extracts completely and perfectly dissolve. The test-solutions remain limpid and clear. To the contrary, low quality "OPC" extracts only partially dissolve. The level of insolubles in these low quality extracts is a strong indicator of their lack of quality and purity.

To check insolubles in as broad a range as possible, every batch of MASQUELIER's Original OPC, from PINUS MARITIMA as well as from VITIS VINIFERA, is checked by mixing a sample of it with methanol, propanol-2 and ethanol. In these three substances the MASQUELIER's Original OPC extracts remain perfectly soluble and limpid. The pine bark-based sample #14 shows high amounts of insolubles in the propanol-2, as well as a significant amount of insolubles in ethanol.

Probably due to its different method of extraction, the industrial quality of sample #14 is below the quality and purity of the MASQUELIER's Original OPC products.

The impurities found in sample #14 possibly are the non-antioxidant compounds and they may be the cause of its poor antioxidant performance. As on the point of the antioxidant capacity, pine bark-based sample #14 belongs in the category of the lower quality generic grape seed extracts where it comes to purity.