New Research Confirms Wild Blueberry Antioxi...( - Cornell University Food Scientis...),Health

- Cornell University Food Scientists Developed a Cellular Antioxidant

Activity Assay for Antioxidant Research -

PORTLAND, Maine, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- New research published in the current issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (55 (22), 8896-8907, 2007) shows that Wild Blueberries have the highest cellular antioxidant activity of selected fruits tested. Lead scientist Rui Hai Liu, Ph.D. used the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay-a new assay developed by the Cornell University Department of Food Science to determine antioxidant activity of antioxidants, foods, and dietary supplements. Wild Blueberries performed better in cells than cranberries, apples, red and green grapes.

According to Dr. Liu, the CAA assay takes antioxidant measurement to a new level moving beyond test tube assays to bioactivity inside cells. "We've taken the next step toward understanding antioxidant activity by examining how antioxidants react with cells. This new approach is more biologically relevant as it accounts for uptake, metabolism, distribution and activity of antioxidant compounds in cells versus solely looking at antioxidant value." Dr. Liu's work builds upon current antioxidant research using the chemistry or test tube assays, like Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). "ORAC is still a valuable test. What we've done is advance the research to see how these compounds react with cells. We believe this is a stronger measure of how antioxidant compounds could potentially react in the body."

According to USDA scientist and developer of the ORAC test Ron Prior, Ph.D., the CAA assay is an advancement. "The CAA assay provides information regarding cellular levels of antioxidants which is important to our understanding in this area of antioxidant research. How useful the assay will be in predicting in vivo uptake and availability of dietary antioxidants remains to be determined with further research."

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