Ellagic acid, a phenolic acid is found in berries (raspberries, strawberries), pomegranate, grapes, and nuts. Ellagic acid has shown positive attributes in esophageal and colon cancer in animals studies. Human studies are limited but show ellagic acid to have some potential in its role in cancer treatment help.

Pomegranate 500 mg, 60 Capsules, Club Natural

Pomegranate Extract (Punica granatum) from a pure, whole-fruit source to maximize its antioxidant benefits.

Get the benefits of pomegranate juice and avoid all the calories and sugar (fructose).

Pomegranate Supplement Facts
Pomegranate extract - 500 mg*

Click here to buy this Pomegranate product, Diet Rx with pomegranate extract, or to sign up up to a FREE newsletter
Recommendation: Take 1 or 2 pomegranate capsules daily with food or water.
* Pomegranate daily value not established.

Subscribe to a FREE Supplement Research Update newsletter. Twice a month you will receive an email with a review of several studies on various supplements and natural medicine topics, including pomegranate and ellagic acid, and their practical interpretation by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

You may also consider other healthy herbs and supplements with high antioxidant potential, including Acai berry supplement, Cacao, Curcumin supplement, Goji berry, Graviola fruit, Mangosteen and Noni.

Diet Rx with pomegranate extract, for better weight control management
This natural appetite suppressant works without stimulants. Diet Rx has no added caffeine, ephedra, ephedrine alkaloids, synephrine, hormones, guarana, ginseng, or stimulating amino acids. 

Benefits of Diet Rx
All natural appetite suppressant, decreases appetite so you eat less
Helps you maintain healthy blood sugar levels
Helps you maintain healthy cholesterol and lipid levels
Provides a variety of antioxidant from two dozen herbs and nutrients
Provides healthy fiber
Improves energy
Balances mood
Improves mental concentration and focus
Improves will power and choice of food selection

Diet Rx is available for sale. You can also find out the ingredients in this product, and see a list of hundreds of high quality natural supplements

More information about ellagic acid
Ellagic acid is found in plants in the form of ellagitannin, a combination of ellagic acid and glucose. It is believe that many plants use ellagic acid to protect themselves against infection or destruction by germs and other organisms.

How is ellagic acid available?
Ellagic acid is sold in capsule and powder form. You can also find a high ellagic content in pomegranate extract.    Many herb and vitamins ingredient suppliers sell pomegranate at various extract potencies. Some of these includie pomegranate extract at 20 percent ellagic acid, pomegranate extract at 40 percent ellagic acid, and pomegranate extract at 70 percent ellagic acid.

Ellagic Acid Research Update
Ellagic acid induced p53/p21 expression, G1 arrest and apoptosis in human bladder cancer T24 cells.
Anticancer Res. 2005 Mar-Apr;25(2A):971-9.
It is well known that dietary phenolic compounds can elicit vital cellular responses such as cytotoxicity, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis by activating a cascade of molecular events. Ellagic acid is one of these phenolic compounds, but the exact mechanism of its action is still unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate ellagic acid-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in T24 human bladder cancer cells in vitro. Assays were performed to determine cell viability, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, caspases-3 activity and gene expression, measured by flow cytometric assay, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and determination of caspase-3 activity. Ellagic acid significantly reduced the viable cells, induced G0/G1-phase arrest of the cell cycle and apoptosis. Ellagic acid also increased p53 and p21 and decreased CDK2 gene expression, that may lead to the G0/G1 arrest of T24 cells. Ellagic acid also promoted caspase-3 activity after exposure for 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h, which led to induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, the ellagic acid-induced apoptosis on T24 cells was blocked by the broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor (z-VAD-fmk).

Support ellagic acid therapy in patients with hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) on standard chemotherapy using vinorelbine and estramustine phosphate.
Eur Urol. 2005 Apr;47(4):449-54; discussion 454-5. Epub 2005 Jan 19.
Recent phase III studies in hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) showed an improvement in terms of overall survival (OS), objective response (OR) and biochemical response (BR); however, chemotherapy is usually accompanied by negative side effects that determines poor quality of life (QoL) and only marginally improves individual clinical response (ICR) in terms of pain relief and performance status. Ellagic acid is a polyphenol that is found in many species of flowering plants. It is an antioxidant that determines apoptosis, down regulation of IGF-II, activates p21 (waf1/Cip1), mediates the cumulative effect on G1/S transition phase and prevents destruction of p-53 gene by cancer cells. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of ellagic acid support therapy on toxicity, OR, ICR and BR in HRPC patients treated with estramustine phosphate and vinorelbine. Patients with HRPC were randomly distributed in two study groups: a control group (group A) who underwent chemotherapy with vinorelbine and estramustine phosphate, and an experimental group (group B) where chemotherapy regimen was associated with ellagic acid. The mean number of chemotherapy cycles/patient was 4 (range 3-8 cycles) and 6.5 (range 5-11) in group A and B patients, respectively. A reduction in systemic toxicity, statistically significant for neutropenia, associated with better results in term of OR rate, ICR, and BR were observed in group B compared with group A. On the contrary no significant difference in OS and PFS was detected between groups. Our study suggests that the use of ellagic acid as support therapy reduces chemotherapy induced toxicity, in particular neutropenia, in HRCP patients; however, further studies are required to confirm our results.

Ellagic acid and quercetin interact synergistically with resveratrol in the induction of apoptosis and cause transient cell cycle arrest in human leukemia cells.
Cancer Lett. 2005 Feb 10;218(2):141-51.
Anticarcinogenic effects of polyphenolic compounds in fruits and vegetables are well established. Although polyphenols naturally occur as combinations, little information is available regarding possible synergistic or antagonistic biochemical interactions between compounds. Identifying potential interactions between polyphenols may provide information regarding the efficiency of polyphenol-containing foods in cancer prevention. The objective of this study was to investigate the interactions of ellagic acid and quercetin with resveratrol, polyphenols which occur in muscadine grapes, with the hypothesis that the selected polyphenols would interact synergistically in the induction of apoptosis and reduction of cell growth in human leukemia cells (MOLT-4). To test this hypothesis, alterations in cell cycle kinetics, proliferation, and apoptosis (caspase-3 activity) were examined after incubation with ellagic acid, quercetin, and resveratrol as single compounds and in combination. Results showed a more than additive interaction for the combination of ellagic acid with resveratrol and furthermore, significant alterations in cell cycle kinetics induced by single compounds and combinations were observed. An isobolographic analysis was performed to assess the apparent synergistic interaction for the combinations of ellagic acid with resveratrol and quercetin with resveratrol in the induction of caspase 3 activity, confirming a synergistic interaction with a combination index of 0.64 for the combination of ellagic acid and resveratrol and 0.68 for quercetin and resveratrol. Results indicate that the anticarcinogenic potential of foods containing polyphenols may not be based on the effects of individual compounds, but may involve a synergistic enhancement of the anticancer effects.

In vitro anti-proliferative activities of ellagic acid.
J Nutr Biochem. 2004 Nov;15(11):672-8.
The potential cytotoxic and anti-proliferative activities of ellagic acid was evaluated using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), normal human lung fibroblast cells HEL 299, Caco-2 colon, MCF-7 breast, Hs 578T breast, and DU 145 human prostatic cancer cells. Ellagic acid at concentration in the range 10-100 micromol/L did not affect the viability of normal fibroblast cells during a 24-hour incubation. An increase in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence of approximately 18-21% was observed in normal cells incubated with ellagic acid. In contrast, ellagic acid at 1-100 micromol/L dose-dependently inhibited HUVEC tube formation and proliferation on a reconstituted extracellular matrix and showed strong anti-proliferative activity against the colon, breast, and prostatic cancer cell lines investigated. The most sensitive cells were the Caco-2, and the most resistant were the breast cancer cells. Ellagic acid induced cancer cell death by apoptosis as shown by the microscopic examination of cell gross morphology. Ellagic acid induced reduced cancer cell viability as shown by decreased ATP levels of the cancer cells. After 24 hours incubation of 100 micromol/L of ellagic acid with Caco-2, MCF-7, Hs 578T, and DU 145 cancer cells, ellagic acid suppressed fetal bovine serum (FBS) stimulation of cell migration. The apoptosis induction was accompanied by a decreased in the levels of pro-matrix metalloproteinase-2 (pro-MMP-2 or gelatinase A), pro-matrix metalloproteinase-9 (pro-MMP-9 or gelatinase B), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF(165)) in conditioned media. The results suggest that ellagic acid expressed a selective cytotoxicity and anti-proliferative activity, and induced apoptosis in Caco-2, MCF-7, Hs 578T, and DU 145 cancer cells without any toxic effect on the viability of normal human lung fibroblast cells. It was also observed that the mechanism of apoptosis induction in ellagic acid-treated cancer cells was associated with decreased ATP production, which is crucial for the viability of cancer cells.

Ellagic Acid questions
Q. Can you tell me how much ellagic acid is found in pomegranate juice? Also what are punicalagins?
   A. There are variations in ellagic acid content in various pomegranate juice products depending on where the pomegranate is grown. We found one study where a person was given 180 ml (about 6 ounces) of pomegranate juice, and there apparently was ellagic acid 25 mg and hydrolyzable ellagitannins 318 mg, as punicalagins, the major fruit ellagitannin.