Watermelon Juice Helpful in Soothing Post-Exercise Muscle Soreness

According to a recent finding by the ACS (American Chemical Society), watermelon juice has the ability to ease muscle soreness after exercises.

This recent finding can help bring relief to athletes. Researchers found that watermelon contains  amino acid L-citrulline, which has the ability to soothe sore muscle cramps.

This research was spearheaded by Encarna Aguayo along with her fellow colleagues. The researchers analyzed the antioxidant properties of this natural cooler, L-citrulline, and its ability to boost muscle protein and improve athletic performance.

The researchers took the L-citrulline enriched watermelon juice and a placebo and tested it on seven athletes, giving them watermelon juice some days before intense exercises and placebo on others.  The researchers observed that both, the natural watermelon juice and the placebo, helped the athletes in reducing the muscle soreness and recovering the heart rate after 24 hours. But the L-citrulline present in the natural juice appeared to be more effective in easing muscle soreness.

The report is also published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Watermelon is a good source of citrulline. This amino acid gets converted into arginine by our kidneys., which helps improve cardiovascular health and also perks up  blood flow, according to World's Healthiest Foods. The process of transformation of citrulline to arginine is also likely to cut the building up of fat cells, which is caused by blocked activity of an enzyme called TNAP (tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase).