[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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