Cranberries and Cranberry Products: Powerful in Vitro, ex Vivo, and in Vivo Sources of Antioxidants

Abstract

Cranberry products and especially cranberry juice (CJ) have been consumed for health reasons primarily due to their effect on urinary tract infections. We investigated the quantity of both free and total (after hydrolysis) phenolic antioxidants in cranberry products using the Folin assay. The order of amount of total polyphenols in cranberry foods on a fresh weight basis was as follows: dried > frozen > sauce > jellied sauce. On a serving size basis for all cranberry products, the order was as follows: frozen > 100% juice > dried > 27% juice > sauce > jellied sauce. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a major source of sugar consumption in the U.S. and contains both glucose and fructose, potential mediators of oxidative stress. We investigated the effect of the consumption of HFCS and ascorbate with CJ antioxidants or without CJ (control) given to 10 normal individuals after an overnight fast. Plasma antioxidant capacity, glucose, triglycerides, and ascorbate were measured 6 times over 7 h after the consumption of a single 240 mL serving of the two different beverages. The control HFCS caused a slight decrease in plasma antioxidant capacity at all time points and thus an oxidative stress in spite of the presence of ascorbate. CJ produced an increase in plasma antioxidant capacity that was significantly greater than control HFCS at all time points. Postprandial triglycerides, due to fructose in the beverages, were mainly responsible for the oxidative stress and were significantly correlated with the oxidative stress as measured by the antioxidant capacity. Cranberries are an excellent source of high quality antioxidants and should be examined in human supplementation studies.

Antioxidant activities and bioactive components in some berries

“…Our results are in correspondence with Burdulis et al [24], where it was shown that the strongest antioxidant capacity possesses blueberry cultivar ''Berkeley'' (82.13 ± 0.51 %). Our results about the investigated berries like cranberries are in full correspondence with other reports that it is an excellent source of high-quality antioxidants and should be examined in human supplementation studies [33]. Bog bilberry water extracts contained polyphenol, anthocyanin-rich (pigment), and sugar/acid fractions by using ethyl acetate, acidic methanol (MeOH) and 0.01 N HCl.…”

Oleanolic Acid and Ursolic Acid in Commercial Dried Fruits

“…However, our study shows that OA and UA can be readily taken in from raisins and dried cranberries as part of daily food consumption. As raisins and dried cranberries also contain various functional flavonoids (Zhao and Hall, 2007;Vinson et al, 2008), the combination of flavonoids and the triterpenes OA and UA provided by these fruits may be particularly beneficial for spot). Because we believed that these fruits contain only trace amounts of UA and OA, we did not analyze them by HPLC.…”

Cranberry Supplement and Metabolic Risk Factors in Obese and Overweight Females

“…This effect might be due to an elevation in apo A-I and a decrease in HDL particles clearance that is mediated by cranberry supplements, or in other words, by polyphenolic compounds (7,8,14,(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). On the other hand, quercetin, one of the most prominent flavonols of cranberry, can increase HDLassociated enzymes such as paraoxanase-1 (PON-1) (30).…”