Unroasted coffee bean extract is being found increasingly amongst the health supplement offerings. We tend to think of coffee in its processed form, like tea, with its processes of roasting or ’fermentation’.

Take the raw material however, and other health benefits become potentially available from the nutrients which have not been converted during processing. The unprocessed actives, the chlorogenic acids (CGA) found in coffee bean extract are claimed to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive people and help in weight loss.

Health Studies

A number of studies using green coffee beans as well as extracts have been trialed to assess the health benefits.

Unroasted coffee beans are rich in natural chlorogenic acids which are known to help control high blood sugar levels and body weight, especially in those with type 2 diabetes. Roasting unfortunately, damages the chlorogenic acids (Del Castillo et al., 2002), so methods to protect these components using alternatives to roasting have been sought.

The chlorogenic acids are phenolic esters of the cinnamic acids such as ferulic, p-coumaric acids and caffeic acids. Their levels in raw or green coffee are between 5 and 12g/100g.

Chlorogenic acid selectively inhibits liver (hepatic) glucose-6-phosphatase which is an important enzyme controlling the rate-limiting step in gluconeogenesis (Arion et al., 1997).  

A couple of recent studies attempted to draw some lines under the benefits of coffee bean extracts.  Sixteen overweight adults were the subject of a 22-week crossover study that examined the efficacy of a green tea extract (Vinson et al., 2012).  

These results were claimed to be more dramatic than witnessed in previous studies. At least 10 of the 16 subjects showed a 10% weight loss. Six of the subjects classified with a body mass index (BMI) for the overweight moved into the ‘normal’ BMI category after completion of the programme. Crossover studies don’t always indicate the underlying mechanisms but do highlight change effects, and the subject number was statistically small.

A randomised, controlled trial with placebo versus the supplement using a separate group of patients might prove more illuminating. As always larger subject groups are needed to improve the statistical veracity of the study.

ACS Report On Clinical Study Using Coffee Bean Extract

At the 245_^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, further evidence was presented by the same authors that coffee bean extracts could help control rises in blood sugar levels and body weight associated with type 2 diabetes (ACS, 2013).

The findings of a dose-response study were presented by the lead researcher Dr Joe Vinson from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, USA. Here, 56 subjects with normal blood sugar levels had a regular glucose tolerance test to understand how they responded to a standardised sugar intake. Over time, the subjects took 100, 200, 300 or 400mg of the coffee bean extract in a capsule with water.

Further glucose tolerance tests showed how their blood sugar levels responded to consumption of the extract. In fact, even the minimal amount of extract produced a reduction in blood sugar relative to the original blank glucose settings. However, ‘the maximum blood sugar occurred at 30 minutes and was 24% lower than the original with the 400mg of green coffee extract and the blood glucose at 120 minutes was 31% lower’.  The green coffee bean extract was supplied by Applied Food Sciences LLC, Austin. Texas USA (www.appliedfoods.com).

Products

If you are interested in products for sale that use green coffee extract, please take a look at the following offering called Green Coffee Bean -Max™ which also includes a diet and weight loss program as part of the incentive.

References

ACS (2013) New evidence that natural substances in green coffee beans help control blood sugar levels. 245^th ACS National Mtg & Exp. American Chemical Society, press release. April 2009. See: http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2013/april/new-evidence-that-natural-substances-in-green-coffee-beans-help-control-blood-sugar-levels.html
Arion, W.J., Canfield, W.K., Ramos, F.C., Schindler PW, Burger HJ, Hemmerle H, Schubert G, Below P, Herling AW (1997) Chlorogenic acid and hydroxynitrobenzaldehyde: new inhibitors of hepatic glucose 6-phosphatase. Arch Biochem Biophys 339 pp. 315-322.
Del Castillo, M.D., Ames, J.M., Gordon, M.H. (2002) Effect of roasting on the antioxidant activity of coffee brews.  J Agric Food Chem 50 pp. 3698-3703.
Farah, A., Donangelo, C.M. (2006) Phenolic compounds in coffee. Braz. J. Plant Physiol.18 pp. 23–36.
Vinson, J.A., Burnham, B.R., Nagendran, M.V. (2012) Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a green coffee bean extract in overweight subjects. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy 5 pp. 21- 27