[NAFEX] Fwd: Antioxidant-Rich Cranberry Eyed
Lon J. Rombough
lonrom at hevanet.com
Tue Jan 8 11:50:07 EST 2008
Begin forwarded message:
From: ARS News Service <NewsService at ars.usda.gov>
Date: January 8, 2008 4:51:36 AM PST
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom at hevanet.com>
Subject: Antioxidant-Rich Cranberry Eyed
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService at ars.usda.gov>
STORY LEAD:
New Cranberry Packed with Health Features
___________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Rosalie Marion Bliss, (301) 504-4318, rosalie.bliss at ars.usda.gov
January 8, 2008
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
___________________________________________
Juice drinks, saucy relishes and dried fruit products may one day boast
a new cranberry variety with a readily absorbable dose of healthful
antioxidants. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and
colleagues are using traditional breeding methods to suit up a
wholesome new cranberry line with just such a genetic trait.
Plant pathologist James J. Polashock, with the ARS Genetic Improvement
of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory, and Nicholi Vorsa, with the Philip
E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension at
Rutgers University, are collaborating on the project. Both scientists
are located at the center in Chatsworth, N.J.
Since brightening up the first Thanksgiving celebration nearly 400
years ago, the typical American cranberry variety has only recently
been bred to develop hybrids. The team found an attractive cranberry
species from Alaska that is genetically similar enough to the American
cranberry to produce fertile progeny.
The Alaskan species is also attractive because some of the fruit's many
healthful chemical compounds--called anthocyanins--are glucose-linked.
In nature, most anthocyanins are bound to sugars. Those that are bound
to glucose sugar are relatively high in antioxidant capacity and are
well absorbed in the human gut. In contrast, the anthocyanins found in
the American cranberry are mainly bound to other kinds of sugars, so
they are less easily absorbed.
The researchers found that, compared to the typical American
cranberry's anthocyanins, which are 3 to 5 percent glucose-linked, the
anthocyanins in hybrids from the first breeding cross were 50 percent
glucose-linked.
The progeny of these crosses deliver two benefits: the
proanthocyanidins long known for inhibiting bacterial E. coli from
sticking to the lining of the urinary tract, and higher amounts of the
potentially well-absorbed antioxidative anthocyanins, according to
Polashock. The next step is to move the traits for glucose-linked
anthocyanins from the experimental cranberry line into a
horticulturally acceptable variety that can be used by growers for
market.
Read more about this research in the January 2008 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jan08/cranberry0108.htm
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________
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__________________________________________
ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128
NewsService at ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
Phone (301) 504-1636 | fax (301) 504-1486
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