After the fact that gastritis and peptic ulcers are caused by free radicals has been proven by clinical studies, there has been a massive search in the naturopathic community for the best and most balanced natural sources of anti-ulcer antioxidants. This search has produced some very encouraging and exciting results. Somewhat unexpectedly, the researchers have come across extra virgin pine nut oil – a golden colored, tasty oil pressed from the seeds of Siberian pine (Pinus Sibirica). It turned out that this little-known oil has been used in Russia and China for many centuries not just for food, but for successfully healing peptic ulcers and gastritis. Moreover, the oil proved to be such a powerful gastritis and ulcer ulcer treatment that, after extensive clinical studies, it has been officially approved as a gastritis and ulcer medication in Russia, China and the Eastern Europe.

To better understand why pine nut oil is the best and the most effective natural
remedy for healing gastritis peptic ulcers, it is necessary to go a little deeper into the mechanisms by which our body protects itself from the harmful effects of free radicals.

Our body has developed several endogenous antioxidant systems to deal with the production of free radicals. These systems may be divided into enzymatic and non-enzymatic groups. The enzymatic antioxidants include superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. SOD catalyzes the breaking down of a free radical called superoxide, which plays a major role in lipid peroxidation, into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, which is further decomposed into water and oxygen by catalase. Glutathione peroxidase is also used by the body to consume free peroxide in the cells.

It is very important to note that, for maximum efficiency, these antioxidant enzymes require trace metal cofactors. SOD, for example, consists of proteins co-factored with copper, zinc, manganese, or iron. Iron is also required as a co-factor for catalase.

The most well-researched non-enzymatic antioxidants include lipid-soluble vitamin E, vitamin A and carotenoids (including beta-carotene), as well as water-soluble vitamin C and glutathione (GSH). Glutathione, which is synthesized intracellularly from amino acids cysteine, glycine, and glutamate, is capable of scavenging free radicals either directly or enzymatically via glutathione peroxidase. In addition, GSH is crucial to the maintenance of enzymes and other cellular components in a reduced state.

Extra virgin Siberian pine nut oil is a uniquely potent natural source of powerful antioxidants, as well as antioxidant cofactors and “building blocks”. First, it contains up to 56 mg/100 g of natural alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) – the most effective non-enzymatic antioxidant for terminating the chain reactions of lipid peroxidation in cell membranes. Pine nut oil is significantly richer in vitamin E than any other common vegetable oil (for example, extra virgin olive oil contains five times less vitamin E than extra virgin pine nut oil). It is also very important that pine nut oil contains a natural, maximum-potency form of vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol), whereas a vast majority of vitamin E capsules sold as dietary supplements contain synthetic forms of tocopherol (primarily dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate), which are at best only half as potent as natural vitamin E.

The next important group of antioxidant compounds present in Siberian pine nut oil is carotenoids. Carotenoids are organic pigments occurring in plants and some types of algae and fungus. So far, more than 600 of them were identified. Their molecular structure makes them very efficient free radical scavengers, resulting in a powerful antioxidant effect. Some carotenoids (for example, beta-carotene) fall into the category of pro-vitamin A. From them, our body makes retinol (vitamin A), which is a potent antioxidant itself.

Pine nut oil is a rich source of carotenoids, supplying about 30 mg/100 g of these antioxidant and pro-vitamin compounds. The fact that these carotenoids are dissolved in oil greatly increases their bio-availability to our bodies in two ways. First, the carotenoids are already released from the plant matrix (under certain circumstances, this release may be difficult, making carotenoids in some foods less usable compared to others), and, second, fat is a necessary cofactor for carotenoid uptake.

The abundance of vitamin E and carotenoids alone would make extra virgin pine nut oil an excellent natural antioxidant supplement, but there is much more to its antioxidant activity. As noted above, another major antioxidant, glutathione, is a tripeptide synthesized by our cells from three amino acids: cysteine, glycine, and glutamate. Pine nut oil, rich in essential and non-essential amino acids, supplies all three of these glutathione building blocks. Therefore, it is also an important glutathione booster, capable of enhancing the free radical scavenging performance of this major antioxidant both directly and via glutathione peroxidase.

Finally, extra virgin Siberian pine nut oil is exceptionally rich in trace metal co-factors for enzymatic antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. It contains 20 mg/100 g of zinc, 16 mg/100 g of manganese, and 4 mg/100 g of copper – all of them required for maximum efficiency of SOD. It also supplies about 19 mg/100 g of iron, an essential co-factor for both SOD and catalase. Consequently, pine nut oil not only provides our body with a potent boost of “external”, non-enzymatic antioxidants (vitamin E and carotenoids), but also reinforces and optimizes its own enzymatic potential for scavenging free radicals expressed through superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase.

As we can see, extra virgin pine nut oil is an outstanding concentrate of powerful free radical scavengers fully capable of preventing or reversing even the strongest oxidative stress leading to gastritis and peptic ulcers. There is also some evidence suggesting that pine nut oil may be capable of working against gastroduodenal ulcerative disorders in more than one way, its potent antioxidant activity being just one of the factors contributing to its effectiveness as a natural ulcer and gastritis remedy. For example, a number of researchers suggest that the oil contains some unique fatty acids with strong anti-inflammatory and protective effects on the gastric and duodenal mucosa. This is quite possible, but, no matter which specific properties of pine nut oil apart from its antioxidant activity account for its anti-ulcer action, one thing is for sure: extra virgin pine nut oil is an effective, time-tested and proven natural ulcer and gastritis healer.