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From The February 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News
Beyond the Label: Pinitol's Sweet Promise
by Anthony Almada
Pinitol is a sugar that occurs naturally in alfalfa (Medicago sativa), pine-tree shoots and soybeans (Glycine max) and other legumes. This sweetener imparts no calories and may even positively influence blood-sugar metabolism.
Recent test tube and animal studies have shown that the oral and injectable forms of pinitol enhance the action of insulin—and therefore the uptake of glucose—in immature rat muscle cells and in mice with type I-like (but not type II) diabetes.1
However, to date, the only published human study was not definitive. The study tested the effects of an oral dose of 9.1 mg/pound body weight/day of soy-derived pinitol.2 In the trial, conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, 22 subjects who were obese and had mild type II diabetes or impaired blood-sugar control were given the pinitol dose for 28 days. Although pinitol demonstrated no adverse effects, it performed no better than placebo in improving the actions of insulin in carbohydrate or fat metabolism. Ongoing studies, results of which will be reported next year, may provide clearer insight into the promise and potency of this plant extract.
Anthony Almada is a nutritional and exercise biochemist and has collaborated on more than 50 universityclinical trials. He is the co-founder of EAS and founder and chief scientific officer of IMAGINutrition.
Disclosure: Almada is a collaborative investigator in a university-clinical trial on pinitol, funded by a company that markets and holds patents on pinitol.
References
1. Bates SH, et al. Insulin-like effect of pinitol. Br J Pharmacol 2000;130:1944-8.
2. Davis AM, et al. Effect of pinitol treatment on insulin action in subjects with insulin resistance. Diabetes Care 2000;23:1000-5.
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