What is it?:
Ursolic acid is a pentacyclic triterpene acid, used in cosmetics.
Where is it present?:
Ursolic acid is present in many plants, including apples, basil, bilberries, cranberries, elder flower, peppermint, rosemary, lavender, oregano, thyme, hawthorn, and prunes. Apple peels contain large quantities of ursolic acid and related compounds.
What it can do for your muscles and fatty tissue?:
It has been found to reduce muscle atrophy and to stimulate muscle growth in mice. It was found to be a weak aromatase inhibitor. Ursolic acid has been shown to increase the amount of muscle and brown fat and decrease obesity and associated conditions when added to diets fed to mice.
Another article states that ursolic acid (im mice) increased skeletal muscle and brown fat and at the same time it decreased diet-induced obesity, glucose intolerance and fatty liver disease. It does this by:
- Increasing the size of both slow (oxidative) and fast (glycolytic) muscle fibers
- Improve exercise capacity, lowering resting heart rate without altering blood pressure.
References:
PubMed Article 1
PubMed Article 2
| © Muscular Science 2013 |