Effects of Acerola Beverage Intake on Skin Conditions

Abstract

Acerola is a fruit known to have high ascorbic acid content. We examined the effects on the skin of intake of an acerola beverage for 12 weeks in healthy, premenopausal women, aged 40-49 by double-blind, parallel comparison with an ascorbic acid beverage and an ascorbic acid-free beverage as controls. The effects were evaluated by three methods : instrumental evaluation, self-evaluation of skin conditions by the subjects using a 12-question survey, and evaluation of skin condition by a professional dermatologist. In the instrumental evaluation, the acerola beverage produced no significant ameliorating effects on skin condition. However, evaluations by both the subjects and the dermatologist produced significantly higher scores in several aspects of skin conditions for the acerola beverage than the ascorbic acid and the ascorbic acid-free beverages. The ameliorating effects of skin conditions by acerola beverage are probably related to other functional constituents in acerola fruit, in addition to ascorbic acid.