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CRANBERRIES
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MAINE:
FINAL Results of 1998-2000 SARE Grower
Grant
("An Alternative to the Winter Protection of Cranberries in Maine")
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SUMMARY OF CRANBERRY FRUITWORM COVER STUDY
CONDUCTED IN 2003 AND 2004 AT SPARROW FARMS
IN PITTSTON, MAINE
Key Question: Are enough cranberries protected from cranberry fruitworm
by using a polypropylene fabric
row cover to justify the expense of the cover?
ELSEWHERE:
JOURNAL
OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY
November, 2001. Vol. 49, No. 11:
Phenol Antioxidant Quantity and Quality in Foods:
Fruits
Joe A. Vinson
Department of Chemistry, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania
18510-4626
Xuehui Su
Department of Chemistry, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania
18510-4626
Ligia Zubik
Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Wroclaw,
51-184 Wroclaw, Poland
Pratima Bose
Department of Chemistry, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania
18510-4626
NOTES:
-
Vinson and his team have recently shown that many phenols and polyphenols
are stronger antioxidants than are vitamin antioxidants (using as a model
the oxidation of the lower density lipoproteins LDL+VLDL)
-
For this study, they looked at phenol content in 20 different fruits commonly
consumed in America: apple, avocado, banana, blueberry, cantaloupe, cherry,
cranberry, grape (both red and white), grapefruit, lemon, honeydew, nectarine,
orange, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, strawberry and watermelon.
-
For the study, 2 or 3 samples of fresh fruits were obtained from local
supermarkets.
-
The polyphenol concentration of the fruits was measured as both free and
total phenols. Only a few fruits--avocado, cranberry, honeydew
melon, and orange--were found to have a large portion of their phenols
in a free form (versus conjugated, as in the other fruits). Cranberries,
by far, had the largest amount of both free and total phenols among the
20 fruits tested, with red grapes a distant second. The rankings
are as follows: cranberry (1), red grape (2), banana (3), cherry (4), blueberry
(5), plum (6), white grape (7), pear (8), apple (9), strawberry (10), avocado
(11), peach (12), lemon (13), pineapple (14), watermelon (15), nectarine
(16), orange (17), honeydew melon (18), cantaloupe (19), and grapefruit
(20) -- I knew there was a reason why I don't like grapefruit!!
-
However, when Vinson and his team used a different method of measuring
antioxidant quantity, called the oxygen radical assay (ORAC), blueberry
came out the winner, and cranberry was somewhat less. Nevertheless,
Vinson comments that although the two different methods yield different
values for different fruits and vegetables, they still match up pretty
closely with each other.
-
Vinson and his team also compared the 20 fruits on the basis of serving
size, and when they did this, cranberry once again came out on top,
followed by pear, red grape, apple, blueberry & watermelon (equal),
banana & strawberry (equal), white grape, and plum, in that order.
-
Besides the important discovery of just how much phenol content there is
in cranberry, another good take-home message from this study is that,
in general, berries had the better quantity, and better quality, of antioxidants
among the fruits tested, and that fruit phenols were significantly better
antioxidants than were vegetables (p < 0.005)!
JAMA
- June 26, 2002
The Journal of the American
Medical Association
The consistency of findings in these two new
independent cross-national studies is notable. The similarity of the results,
which were generated using similar, standardized methods in Chicago (US)
and Rotterdam (The Netherlands), provides persuasive support for the idea
that antioxidant-rich foods may have a beneficial impact on the development
of Alzheimer's disease. Several previous findings
suggest that oxidative stress may play an important role in the development
of Alzheimer disease, which is now the 4th-leading cause of death among
adults, and is expected to afflict an estimated 14 million people within
the next 50 years, leading some to call it the "health care challenge of
the 21st century!" In the United States, the current estimate of 360,000
new cases of Alzheimer's each year is expected to triple in the next 40
years! Even modestly effective interventions that delay the onset of this
terrible disease by one to three years will substantially alleviate its
growing economic and societal burden.
1). Dietary Intake of Antioxidants
and Risk of Alzheimer Disease (pages 3223-3229)
M. J. ENGELHART, M. I. GEERLINGS, A. RUTTENBERG,
J. C. VAN SWIETEN, A. HOFMAN, J. C. M. WITTEMAN, M. M . B. BRETELER
2). Dietary Intake of Antioxidant
Nutrients and the Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease in a Biracial Community
Study (pages 3230-3237)
MARTHA C. MORRIS (ScD), DENIS A. EVANS (MD),
JULIA. L. BIENIAS (ScD), CHRISTINE C. TANGNEY (PhD), DAVID A. BENNETT (MD),
NEELUM AGGARWAL (MD), ROBERT S. WILSON (PhD), PAUL A. SCHERR (PhD, ScD)
In both of these observational studies, higher dietary intake of antioxidants--especially
vitamin E--was found to be associated with a lower risk of incident Alzheimer
Disease (AD). The result was less clear, overall, with vitamin
C. In the Chicago Health and Aging Project, persons in the highest
category of vitamin E intake from food were 70% less likely than those
in the lowest category of intake to be diagnosed with AD! The overall
Chicago findings for vitamin C--which cranberries are very high in--were
not statistically significant in this study but remain suggestive enough
to be of interest for further study. The Chicago findings were
based on new cases developing in an average 3.9-year interval between the
baseline and follow-up examination among 815 men and women, black and white,
aged 65 years and older. Rotterdam Study: In the Rotterdam
Study, persons in the highest category of vitamin E intake from food were
43% less likely to develop AD compared with those in the lowest category
of intake. High intake of vitamin C had a borderline significant association
with risk of AD in all models. But when additional adjustments were made
for education, smoking habits, pack-years of smoking, body mass index,
total energy intake, presence of carotid plaques, and use of antioxidative
supplements, high intake of vitamin C was found to be significantly related
to reduced risk of AD. Men in this study tended to have a higher intake
of vitamin E, fat and beta carotene, and a lower intake of vitamin C as
compared with the women in the study. The findings in this study were based
on an average follow-up period of 6 years among 5,395 men and women aged
55 years and older.
SIDENOTES:
Flavonoids are phenolic plant pigments, with high anti-oxidative power
within the human body. Ripe, RED
cranberries are understandably high in flavonoid content, and are the 1st
of 3 flavonoid examples cited in the Rotterdam study, page 3224!! The
other two are green & black tea, and pulses. For smokers in this
study, beta carotene and flavonoids also seemed to have a protective effect.
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE
November, 1999. Vol. 124, No. 6:
Ice Nucleation and Propagation in Cranberry
Uprights and Fruit Using Infrared Video Thermography
Beth Ann A. Workmaster and Jiwan P. Palta
Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
53706
Michael Wisniewski
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 45
Wiltshire Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430
NOTES:
-
"Freezing injury can occur in plants only after the formation of ice within
their tissues" (619).
-
Infrared (IR) thermography can be used to study the location of ice formation
as well as the direction and rate of ice propagation.
-
Ice formation in plants can be induced by either internal or external sources.
-
The cuticle on the upper surface of cranberry leaves appears to provide
an adequate barrier to ice propagation.
-
Stomata, which are on the under surface (abaxial) of cranberry leaves,
appear to be the likely path through which ice penetrates into cranberry
leaves (Stomata are very small openings in the epidermis of a leaf
or stem through which gases and water vapor pass -- singular = "stoma").
-
Young cranberry leaves have little to no cuticle development, and
thus have been found in the past to be sensitive to any temperatures
below 0 degrees C (or 32 degrees F).
-
In all of the fruit experiments that were done (both attached and
detached fruit), ice formation within the fruit tissue was only initiated
at the calyx (distal) end of the berries. This is probably because
they observed stomata in the remnant area of the nectary, and since stomata
are possible avenues of ice penetration into leaves, the same situation
may exist for the fruit.
-
Air temperatures when fruit tissue began to freeze ranged from -4 to -8
degrees C (or 24.8 to 17.6 degrees F). "Red (ripe)
berries supercooled typically to colder temperatures and for longer durations
than blush or white (unripe) berries" (623). Most of the unripe
berries (92%) began to freeze internally within 20 minutes of the surface
droplets freezing, versus just one red berry (8%). 67% of the red
berries never froze internally over the entire durations of the experiments
(greater than or equal to one hour following the freezing of the surface
water droplets).
See infrared
theromography photos of the process.
Notes
for this page taken and posted by Charles Armstrong
Univ. of Maine Cooperative
Extension's Cranberry Professional
If you have comments or questions about this page,
contact Charles Armstrong at: charlesa@umext.maine.edu
Putting
knowledge to work with the people of Maine
