Posted by Dr. Hannah Sivak and Brendan Leonard on Feb 6th 2020
Many of us wake up in the morning looking forward to a hot water extract of the roasted seeds from coffee. The caffeine stimulates us and it’s a lovely way to start the day.
Coffee fruits are fleshy berries, each containing two seeds which are pressed together so that the inner side of each one is flattened. The coffee beverage is made from the ground, roasted seed endosperm (coffee beans) that are removed from the coffee cherries. When the seeds were collected, the rest of the fruit was usually discarded but now the skin care industry has made the coffee fruit a hot commodity (mislabeled as coffee berry).
The coffee grain is processed after harvest, and the processing will affect the chemical composition of the coffee. What chemicals will you find in coffee fruit extract and in coffee bean extract?
Coffee Fruit Extract It was a great idea to use the until recently discarded coffee fruit, because it contains:
Chlorogenic and Caffeic Acids - Both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
Ferulic Acid - antioxidant
Quinic Acid - antioxidant, antiviral
Trigonelline - antioxidant, antibacterial
Proanthocyanidins, and a number of other actives truly beneficial to our skin and our bodies.
As you can see, that’s a lot of antioxidant action!
Coffee Bean Extract Let’s start with the caffeine:
Caffeine decreases the thickness of subcutaneous fat layer, useful for cellulite but not for aging faces, because we already lose enough sub-dermal fat without using caffeine. Topical application of caffeine is safe, as shown by its use to facilitate breathing of newborns. Other beneficial effects of caffeine are antiviral, antidermatitis, antioxidant. The depuffing effect of caffeine on “post-party” eyes, may be mediated by the promotion of sodium export from the cell, which is followed by water loss.
All of these uses add up to caffeine being a very useful chemical!
Polyphenols: the high polyphenol content of coffee beans makes them an ideal ingredient source for the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. Plants synthesize phenolic compounds because they protect against pathogens and environmental stress like changes in temperature, water content, exposure to UV light, and deficiency of mineral nutrients. Polyphenols are good for humans too.
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