A study published in Food and Function shows that muscadine grape seed oil may help mitigate the formation of new fat cells because it produces tocotrienol, an unsaturated form of vitamin E.
Muscadine grapes—with thick skin and large seeds—grow in the South and are used to make wine and juice. Each year, thousands of tons of the solid byproduct pomace emerge after wine and grape juice production. Traditionally, most of the pomace goes to landfills as waste. But some wineries use the muscadine grape seeds for oil.
For this study, the researchers took muscadine grapes grown near Tallahassee, Florida, and, working in a lab, extracted oil from the fruit’s seeds. They found the content of unsaturated fatty acids reached 85%–90% of the total fatty acids.
The researchers concluded that muscadine grape seed oil would be a valuable addition to the market of edible oils because it is a unique source of tocotrienol in addition to being a good source of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. In addition, scientists anticipate that muscadine grape seed oils fortified with additional tocotrienol from underutilized muscadine varieties could be developed to help stem obesity.
