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Wild blueberries take top spot in new antioxidant research study

1 November 2008

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Results from a new study show that wild blueberries outperformed commonly consumed fruits such as apples, bananas, red grapes and strawberries in an expanded test using the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay. The research published in the current issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows that wild blueberries have the highest CAA of the 25 fruits tested, as well as the highest total phenolic content and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). According to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, lead scientist Rui Hai Liu, PhD, used the new CAA assay developed by the Cornell University Department of Food Science to determine antioxidant activity of antioxidants, foods, and dietary supplements. Liu says the CAA assay was developed to investigate how antioxidant compounds found in foods react inside cells, using human liver cancer cells as the testing model. The CAA assay enables antioxidant measurements to move beyond test tube assays to bioactivity inside cells. It accounts for the uptake, metabolism, distribution and activity of antioxidant compounds within cells rather than solely looking at antioxidant value.