The effects of these compounds in a variety of sources has been of scientific interest for more than a decade. But in order to get the amount of epicatechin-based super antioxidant compounds that would have clinical effect, perhaps you should think about having dark chocolate delivered to your home by the truck load. The compounds required for clinical impact that has been documented at Penn are distilled from POUNDS of raw cacao seeds administered to animals over months, and of course a bar of chocolate only has a small portion of these seeds in it. So perhaps a pair of stretch sweat pants should be included in the regime!!!

But seriously, while a long way from a patient-ready solution to the problem, if it works well, and is cost effective, and most of all - patentable (someone has to make money at this or no one is going to do anything with it), it's the first really interesting path anyone has found. The "protectable" aspects of the idea are crucial for it to move forward, as we saw with the great early work on curcumin. There was no way to protect the final product as a business product, and extensive research of a promising natural occurring chemical was abandoned. All that research money and the results of what they found if positive, would just be copied by everyone and their brother. Investment down the toilet even though mankind may have been bettered. This is a huge problem in big pharma.