GSE and Parabens? was Re: Swollen Armpit

October 8, 2008

I've tried on several lists to warn about GSE but people don't

listen, so thanks Sharon. " Natural " has become meaningless today.

I'm going to post how it's made and I don't think you'll be able to

believe it's natural anymore. Natural to me is the way God made it,

not what man did to it! I wish I could highlight parts of this.

Patty

Grapefruit pulp and seed is dried and ground into a fine powder.

The powder is dissolved in purified water and distilled to remove the

fiber and pectin.

The distilled slurry is spray dried at low temperatures forming a

concentrated flavonoid powder.

This concentrated powder is dissolved in vegetable glycerine and

heated.

Food grade ammonium chloride and ascorbic acid are added, and this

mixture is heated under pressure. The amount of ammonium chloride

remaining in finished Citricidal is 15-19%; the amount of ascorbic

acid remaining is 2.5-3.0%.

The ammoniated mixture undergoes catalytic conversion using natural

catalysts, including hydrochloric acid and natural enzymes. There is

no residue of hydrochloric acid after the reaction.

The slurry is cooled, filtered, and treated with ultraviolet light.

The main active components in the finished product are a group of

quaternary ammonium chlorides, including benzethonium chloride

(illustrated here) or a compound nearly identical to it, that make up

about 8-17% of the product. Benzethonium chloride is a well-known

synthetic antiseptic agent; it is not added to the grapefruit

extract, but is formed from the original grapefruit flavonoids by the

ammoniation process.

>

> Desh,

> FWIW, a friend on another list found this information on GSE. I

think I

> posted this before and no one responded, but figured I'd give it

another

> try. The bottom line is that the antimicrobial activity is due to

the

> synthetic agents. -

October 8, 2008

Interesting- I know I couldn't stomach it when I was pregnant. I threw

it right back up, and I didn't have morning sickness much at all. I do

have a preservative-free brand. Your friend's blog didn't have any

citations, but I found the study she referenced. I wonder what the

competing studies are which built the reputation to begin with?

Desh

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October 8, 2008

*On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 3:58 PM, De Bell-Frantz <deshabell@...> wrote:

*

>

> * I wonder what the

> competing studies are which built the reputation to begin with?

>

> Desh*

>

Desh,

http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/grapefruitseedextract.html

" *All peer reviewed scientific studies apparently showing efficacy for GSE

have likely been as a result of tests using adulterated material*, these

proprietary products having been accepted at face value, so* all tests prior

to and several post exposé are scientifically invalid and worthless,

irrespective of their number **(Reagor L et al, J Altern Compl Med, 8(3),

2002); (Heggers J et al, J Altern Compl Med, 8(4), 2002); (- V,

Burns, 30(8), 2004); (Zayachkivska O, J Physiol Pharmacol, 56(Suppl 1),

2005)*. Some researchers have found non-proprietary extracts to be

ineffective* (Calori-Domingues M, Foseca H, Food Addit Contam, 12, 347-350,

1995)* and the few reporting positive results, were feeble activity *(Cvetnic

Z, Vladimir-Knezevic S, Acta Pharm, 54(3), 2004)* or poorly controlled

equivalency studies *(Oyelami O, J Altern Compl Med, 11(2), 2005) *

______________________________________________________________________________

http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/grapefruitseedextract.html

*Grapefruit seed extract (GSE) The only means by which the GSE could be even

weakly effective long term over the life of a natural product, would be for

it to be preserved with parabens or some other preservative to prevent any

'natural?' preservative itself from decomposing and becoming

ineffective.*Clearly this would be a telling double-standard sham,

making a total mockery

of claimed 'organic' and 'natural' standards for such product ranges, but

without my exposé, how would any one know this, let alone be appraised of

the risks? The name implies that GSE is produced by a simple extraction of

grapefruit seeds, but it *is actually a multi-step synthesised product

merely using waste grapefruit seed and pulp as main raw material.* Claims

for the efficacy of GSE as an alternative to conventional preservatives are

legion via books, magazines and the Internet, so much so that questions

arose in the scientific community about its composition and whether

commercial GSE might be *adulterated with synthetic preservatives.* So how

does GSE stand up to scrutiny?

Using sophisticated analytical methods to compare *commercial grapefruit

seed extracts (GSE) from different manufacturers* with laboratory grapefruit

seed extract, one research group identified the* synthetic preservative

agents methyl paraben* and *triclosan* *(Sakamoto S et al, Bull Natl Inst

Health Sci, 114, 38-42, 1996)*. Another group, using newer analytical

methods, also with *commercial GSE, additionally identified another

synthetic preservative benzethonium chloride*. Levels of cheat ingredients

were significant, as high as 10% (22% by weight) of benzethonium

chloride. *Only

one sample had no adulteration, but this and the laboratory extracts also

had no significant antimicrobial activity*. *(von Woedtke T et al,

Pharmazie, 54, 452-456, 1999) *Using even more modern sophisticated

analytical methods, yet another group, setting out to determine whether

perhaps benzethonium chloride or a similar molecular weight quaternary

ammonium compound was formed during the extraction of active components of

grapefruit seeds, *demonstrated conclusively that synthetic benzethonium

chloride, an antimicrobial agent used in disinfection products, was being

either added to or deliberately artificially synthesised from Grapefruit

Seed Extract* *(Takeoka G et al, J Agric Food Chem, 49(7), 2001)*. These

practices are ongoing despite exposé, troubling given the widespread use and

belief in GSE as natural and safe, when there are in fact toxicity and

allergenicity concerns *(Takeoka G et al, J Agric Food Chem, 53(19), 2005);

(Takeoka G et al, Meeting Abstr, Afgd Paper No. 50, ACS Nat'l Meeting, Mar

2005, San Diego, CA.)*.

*

All peer reviewed scientific studies apparently showing efficacy for GSE