Pick 1 (one) functional (nutraceutical) compound [feel free to pick 1 from the attached list]++ and answer the following questions in your initial discussion post:
What is the name of the functional compound or nutraceutical? (E.g. Proanthocyanidins)
Which chemical family does it belong to? (E.g., Phytochemical bioflavonoid with Flavan-3-ol subgroup)
In what foods do we find it? (E.g., berries, cocoa-based products, red grapes, red wine)
Do we know the concentration? (According to the USDA (2004), 100ml of red wine contains around 60mg of proanthocyanidins [http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/80400525/Data/PA/PA.pdf].)
What does the current research suggest on the benefit(s) of this particular nutraceutical (or a food that contains high amounts of it) for health promotion and disease prevention? (E.g., while observational research indicates a correlation between proanthocyanidin consumption and decreased risk for heart disease in humans, experimental studies conducted by Akhlaghi & Bandy (2012) found that proanthocyanidins can protect against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury [which is what causes most heart attacks] due to their antioxidative properties (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399417/ (Links to an external site.)). Furthermore, animal studies suggest that the antioxidant capacity of proanthocyanidins can possibly slow down the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (Wang et al., 2012): the researchers used Tg2576 mice, who are genetically prone to develop Alzheimer's Disease and fed them a diet high in proanthocyanidins for 5 months; at this point the 'Morris water maze behavior test' was conducted, which showed that the treated animals were much faster in finding the submerged escape platform compared to non-treated control mice. These results in combination with histological investigations showing increased concentrations of proanthocyanidins in the brain tissue of those animals receiving the supplemented feed led the researchers to conclude that consumption of proanthocyanidins had significantly improved the cognitive behavioral performance of Tg2576 mice and thus proanthocyanidins might be valuable to prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer's Disease in humans (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348654/ (Links to an external site.) ).