The antioxidant level of Alaska's wild berries: high, higher and highest

Abstract

BackgroundIn the last few years, antioxidants have become the stars of the nutritional world. Antioxidants are important in terms of their ability to protect against oxidative cell damage that can lead to conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart disease – conditions also linked with chronic inflammation. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of Alaska’s wild berries may have the potential to help prevent these diseases.ObjectiveTo discover the antioxidant levels of Alaska wild berries and the ways these antioxidant levels translate when preservation methods are applied to the berry.DesignThis research centred on both the raw berries and products made from the berries. In the first year, a variety of wild berries were tested to discover their oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC) in the raw berries. The second level of the research project processed 4 different berries – blueberries, lingonberries, salmonberries, highbush cranberries – into 8 or 9 products made from these berries. The products were tested for both ORAC as well as specific antioxidants.ResultsThe Alaska wild berries collected and tested in the first experiment ranged from 3 to 5 times higher in ORAC value than cultivated berries from the lower 48 states. For instance, cultivated blueberries have an ORAC scale of 30. Alaska wild dwarf blueberries measure 85. This is also higher than lower 48 wild blueberries, which had a score of 61. All of the Alaskan berries tested have a level of antioxidant considered nutritionally valuable, ranging from 19 for watermelon berries to 206 for lingonberries on the ORAC scale. With the processed products made from 4 Alaska wild berries, one of the unexpected outcomes of the research was that the berries continued to have levels of antioxidants considered high, despite the effects of commonly used heat-processing techniques. When berries were dehydrated, per gram ORAC values increased.ConclusionAlaska wild berries have extraordinarily high antioxidant levels. Though cooking lowered the antioxidant level, and adding ingredients such as sugar diluted the antioxidant concentration, products made from berries are high sources of antioxidants.

Complex interaction of dietary fat and Alaskan bog blueberry supplementation influences manganese mediated neurotoxicity and behavioral impairments

“…This is not surprising because the mechanistic action of BB is linked to the complex interactions between BB anthocyanins with molecular pathway intermediates (Carey et al, 2017). Because our study utilizes an endemic BB species with a very different anthocyanin profile that is largely influenced by environmental conditions (Dinstel et al, 2013;Grace et al, 2014) the current results corroborates the hypothesis of differential regulation of BDNF. Though, our experiments did not investigate any specific BDNF pathway, such complex associations between BB polyphenols and BDNF expression coupled with selection of diet type warrant further scrutiny.…”

“…Freeze dried berries were crushed into a powder and shipped to LabDiet (St Louis, MO) where they were added to food pellets at 5% of the total pellet weight. As previously shown, Alaskan BB contain elevated levels of polyphenolic compounds (phenolic, anthocyanin and flavonoids) compared to blueberries grown commercially or at temperate latitudes (Dinstel et al, 2013;Grace et al, 2014).…”

“…Indigenous Alaskan botanicals like bog blueberry (BB), Vaccinum uliginosum, contain higher amounts of polyphenolic compounds relative to Vaccinum sp. grown in temperate regions (Dinstel, Cascio, & Koukel, 2013;Grace, Esposito, Dunlap, & Lila, 2014;Maulik et al, 2018;Scerbak, Vayndorf, Hernandez, McGill, & Taylor, 2016). These endemic species of berries primarily have been beneficial in combating age-related cellular symptoms in C. elegans and in in vitro models (Gustafson, Dunlap, McGill, & Kuhn, 2012;Maulik et al, 2018;Scerbak et al, 2016).…”

Phytochemical Characterization of Commercial Processed Blueberry, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Cranberry, and Raspberry and Their Antioxidant Activity

“…The antioxidant potential of the samples was measured by ABTS assay and found to be ranging between 6.10 and 36.56 μM Trolox/g FW with the highest antioxidant activity being observed for blackcurrant sample. ABTS assay is a colorimetric method which can be applied to samples containing hydrophilic, lipophilic, and highly pigmented antioxidant compounds [28,29,30,31].…”

Preparation of Antioxidant Peptide by Microwave- Assisted Hydrolysis of Collagen and Its Protective Effect Against H2O2-Induced Damage of RAW264.7 Cells

“…When humans are subjected to oxidative stress, large amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced. Abundant quantities of ROS (superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl) tend to react with biological molecules, such as protein and DNA, often leading to liver disease, heart disease, and cancer because of oxidative damage of cells [3,4]. ROS-induced oxidative cell damage is usually accompanied by an increase in lipid peroxides [5].…”