D-Pinitol Is A Leading Supplement For Muscle Building

D-(+)-pinitol (3-O-methyl-chirinositol) is becoming an important supplement in both muscle building for sports people and for diabetics in regulating their sugar metabolism. D-Pinitol is extracted from a number of plant sources and derives its name from the first source it was isolated, pine nuts. Commercially, it is now obtained from Carob bean (5% w/w), soya beans (1% w/w) (Streeter, 1980), and to a lesser extent, the more exotic Bougainvillea spectablis and Sutherlandia frutescens plants. Traditionally, the leaves of Bougainvillea are a treatment for diabetes in both Ayurvedic medicine, in India and known as talisapatra, and the West Indies (Narayanan et al., 1987).

In chemical terms, pinitol is a cyclitol (a cyclic polyol) which is one of the structural isomers of a more common biochemical, the secondary messenger, inositol. It is this structural resemblance which probably accounts for many of its biochemical properties because inositol is the root structure of the phosphatidylinositol phosphates which partake in the pathways stimulating glucose transport initiated by insulin (Holman and Kasuga, 1997). The insulin-like effects have been observed in certain types of diabetic mouse (murine) models (Bates et al., 2000) but not in severely insulin resistant mice (Bailey and Flatt, 1997). This indicated D-pinitol participated in certain parts of the pathway mediated glucose regulation.

Pinitol also has an anti-inflammatory effect which was found in various cell lines to suppress NF- κB activation by inhibiting the kinase associated with its activation. The implication  leads to down-regulation of various genes which are required in mediating inflammation (Sethi et al., 2008). A diabetic rat model was also used to show that high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol could be lowered (Geethan and Prince, 2008).

In plants, D-pinitol acts as an osmolyte, a substance improving resistance to water loss and help them tolerate  drought and heat stress conditions.

One of the more interesting properties is the ability it seems to promote creatine uptake and retention which is highly valuable for muscle building.  However, using pinitol in this manner is not without controversy because there are studies which do not wholly support the need for its use (Kerksick et al., 2009). This particular supplement needs further assessment and will be the subject of a separate post.

Reference

Bailey, C.J. & Flatt, P.R. (1997). Animal syndromes of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. In:  Textbook of Diabetes, 2nd end. ed. Pickup, J.C. & Williams, G. pp 23.1 – 23.25. Oxford: Blackwell

Bates, S.H., Jones, R.B., Bailey, C.J. (2000) Insulin-like effect of pinitol. Br. J. Pharmacol., 130 pp. 1944-1948

Geethan, P.K., Prince, P.S. (2008) Antihyperlipidemic effect of D-pinitol on streptozotocin-induced diabetic Wistar rats. J. Biochem Mol Toxicol. 22 pp. 220-224.

Holman G.D. & Kasuga, M. (1997). From receptor to transporter: insulin signalling to glucose transport. Diabetologia, 40, pp. 991 -1003.

Kerksick CM, Wilborn CD, Campbell WI, Harvey TM, Marcello BM, Roberts MD, Parker AG, Byars AG, Greenwood LD, Almada AL, Kreider RB, Greenwood M. The effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation with and without d-pinitol on resistance training adaptations. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(9):2673–2682. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181b3e0de

Narayanan, C.R., Joshi, D.D., Mudjumdar, A.M. & Dhekne, V.V. (1987). Pinitol, a new anti-diabetic compound from the leaves of Bougainvillea spectabilis. Curr. Sci., 56, pp. 139 -141

Sethi, G., Ahn, K.S., Aggarwal, B.B. (2008) Targeting nuclear factor-kappa B activation pathway by thymoquinone: role in suppression of antiapoptotic gene products and enhancement of apoptosis. Molecular Cancer Research. 6  pp.1059–1070.

Streeter JG. (1980) Carbohydrates in Soybean Nodules: II. Distribution of compounds in seedlings during the onset of nitrogen fixation. Plant Physiol. 66 pp. 471-6.