Antioxidant ratings

I use cloves instead of breath mints and wondered if they had much value. This article in Natural News seems to indicate they are off the chart with an antioxidant rating (ORAC) of 314,446!

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Goji Berries score 25,300, and raw elderberries are 14,697. Apples score 6,681 on the ORAC scale, and raw blueberries score 6,552. (Source: ORACvalues.com)

(NaturalNews) If you follow the news on superfoods, you're probably familiar with the term "ORAC" -- Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It's a measure of the antioxidant power of a food or substance. You may not be aware that there's a new, more advanced ORAC test available today: ORACFN.

ORACFN measures the food's ability to protect against oxidative damage caused by five common radicals: hydroxyl, peroxyl, peroxynitrite, singlet oxygen, and superoxide anion. This is designed to provide a more accurate assessment on how the substance being tested might function in the human body.


The highest ORAC value on record for a common food is cloves, which score an amazing 314,446 (cloves are also an ingredient used in Traditional Chinese Medicine formulas, as is cinnamon, another high scorer on the ORAC scale).

For the complete article see NaturalNews