North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

I'm posting this because it answers a couple of questions that have been
asked, and it gives sources for more information.  I wrote this five years
ago for a publication now not in existence, but I still hold the copyright.
Doreen Howard
-------------------------------
A Jam Sandwich A Day

 Nutrition experts advocate drinking red wine daily to reduce the risk of
coronary heart disease.  The wine contains resveratrol, which also has
cancer-fighting properties.  Now University of Mississippi researchers have
found that eating a sandwich every day made with muscadine grape jam will do
the same thing.

 The skin, pulp and seeds from muscadine grapes have more resveratrol than
red wine, they learned. One sandwich made with a tablespoon of muscadine jam
gives the same protection as a four-ounce glass of red wine.  Muscadine
grapes, which are indigenous to the south, are grown mostly for their juice,
because their skins are bitter and tough.  The huge grapes (each is neary
two inches in diameter) appear in small bunches of three to seven on vines.

 Dr. Betty Ector of Mississippi State University said, "For the jam to have
the most resveratrol, it should be made from the residue left after
squeezing grapes to make juice.  The skins are full of the compound.
Heating the grape residue to make jam does not destroy any of the
resveratrol".

 Old South Winery (65 S. Concord, Natchez, MS 39120; 601-445-9924) is the
only mail order source currently for muscadine jam made by the Ector
process.  The company also sells muscadine puree, from which sugar-free jam
can be made, and muscadine extract capsules.

 Ector cautioned, "Other muscadine jams may not have as high a concentration
of resveratrol, but you can eat a larger serving and still gain equal
benefits."
-30-
SOURCES:
USDA Food & Nutrition Research Center
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb/

Scott Galbreath
Old South Winery
(601) 445-9924

Dr. Betty Ector
(601) 323-9078
Email: bector@staruser.net

Julie Collins
South Central Agricultural Research Lab--Lane, OK
(405) 889-7395