What Is Primrose Vitamin?

Primrose vitamin is better known as evening primrose oil, a dietary supplement extracted from the seeds of the evening primrose plant. Evening primrose oil provides high levels of important essential fatty acids--nutrients your body needs for the health of all cells in the body and to fight inflammation and disease.

Function

Evening primrose oil is an important source of several essential fatty acids--important fats that cannot be made by the body and must be obtained from the diet or from supplements. Evening primrose oil supplies omega-6 fatty acids, most specifically gamma linolenic acid (GLA) and linoleic acid. These fatty acids help to alleviate the inflammation and other conditions in the body that contribute to development of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and complications resulting from diabetes.

Significance

GLA is the most important fatty acid derived from evening primrose oil. GLA can be produced from linoleic acid in the body, but levels are reduced with age, nutritional deficiencies, smoking and some disease processes like diabetes or arthritis. GLA on its own is an important component of cell membranes. In the body, GLA is metabolized into dihomogammalinolenic acid (DGLA) and further into one specific type of natural chemical messenger--prostaglandin E1, or PGE1. PGE1 acts as an anti-inflammatory, helps to reduce cholesterol levels and reduces blood clotting. It also helps to reduce uncontrolled cell growth associated with cancer.

Effects

Evening primrose oil helps to reduce the inflammation associated with joint diseases like rheumatoid arthritis as well as some inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema. Diabetics do not have adequate production of GLA in the body, which may contribute to nerve damage. GLA supplementation from evening primrose oil can help to protect nerve cells and increase blood flow to nerves. Women with PMS may have imbalances in essential fatty acids, most notably GLA. Evening primrose may help to correct these imbalances and reduce PMS symptoms.

Prevention/Solution

Supplementation with GLA is important to ensure you are obtaining adequate levels of this essential fatty acid. Take an evening primrose supplement that provides 100 mg of GLA daily. If you have an inflammatory condition such as arthritis or eczema, you can increase your intake of evening primrose oil to provide 250 mg of GLA daily. High levels of GLA have not been shown to cause any side effects other than rare cases of stomach discomfort.

Considerations

The typical Western diet is high in saturated fats as well as omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids. This can be detrimental to health by increasing inflammation in the body. A balanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids should be 1:1. Current Western diets provide more of a 20:1 ratio. If you are taking high levels of an evening primrose supplement, it is also important to supplement with the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) for a more balanced ratio of essential fatty acids.