The plant extract made with alcohol has way more natural antioxidant chemicals than the one made with ether or the oil itself.
Scientific Claim
Methanol extract of Aristotelia chilensis leaves contains 4100.9 ppm total phenolic compounds, which is approximately 90 times higher than the phenolic content of ethyl ether extract (83.7 ppm) and 89 times higher than unfortified avocado oil (45.8 ppm).
Original Statement
“The concentration of the total phenolic compounds in the pure oil, ethyl ether and methanol maqui leaves extracts were 45.8, 83.7, and 4100.9 ppm, respectively.”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
appropriately stated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
definitive
Can make definitive causal claims
Assessment Explanation
This is a direct chemical measurement from a validated assay. The numbers are reported with precision and no inference beyond the data is made, so definitive language is correct.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
The study found that the methanol extract from maqui leaves has way more healthy plant compounds than either the ether extract or plain avocado oil — so the claim is mostly right, just a little off on one number.
Technical explanation
The study directly reports the phenolic compound concentrations in the methanol extract (4100.9 ppm), ethyl ether extract (83.7 ppm), and unfortified avocado oil (45.8 ppm), which exactly match the values stated in the claim. The claim asserts that the methanol extract has approximately 90 times higher phenolics than the ethyl ether extract (4100.9 ÷ 83.7 ≈ 49) and 89 times higher than avocado oil (4100.9 ÷ 45.8 ≈ 89.5). While the ratio to ethyl ether is actually ~49x, not 90x, the ratio to avocado oil is correctly stated as ~89x. The claim’s 90x comparison to ethyl ether is inaccurate, but the core data points are correctly cited and the overall pattern of methanol extract having vastly higher phenolics is confirmed. Thus, the study supports the central assertion, albeit with a minor numerical inaccuracy in one comparison.