Dinstel Roxie Rodgers, Cascio Julie, Koukel Sonja
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AL, USA.
Int J Circumpolar Health. 2013 Aug 5;72. doi: 10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21188. eCollection 2013.
In 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.
To discover the antioxidant levels of Alaska wild berries and the ways these antioxidant levels translate when preservation methods are applied to the berry.
This 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.
The 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.
Alaska 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.
在过去几年中，抗氧化剂已成为营养界的明星。抗氧化剂在防止细胞氧化损伤方面具有重要作用，这种损伤可能导致诸如阿尔茨海默病、癌症和心脏病等疾病，而这些疾病也与慢性炎症有关。阿拉斯加野生浆果的抗氧化和抗炎作用可能有助于预防这些疾病。
了解阿拉斯加野生浆果的抗氧化水平，以及采用保存方法后这些抗氧化水平的变化情况。
本研究围绕生浆果及其制成的产品展开。第一年，对多种野生浆果进行测试，以测定其生浆果中的氧自由基吸收能力（ORAC）。研究项目的第二阶段将4种不同的浆果——蓝莓、越橘、鲑莓、高灌蓝莓——加工成8种或9种由这些浆果制成的产品。对这些产品进行ORAC以及特定抗氧化剂的测试。
在第一个实验中收集并测试的阿拉斯加野生浆果的ORAC值比美国本土48个州种植的浆果高出3至5倍。例如，种植的蓝莓ORAC值为30。阿拉斯加野生矮丛蓝莓的ORAC值为85。这也高于美国本土48个州的野生蓝莓，其得分是61。所有测试的阿拉斯加浆果的抗氧化水平都具有营养价值，在ORAC量表上，从西瓜莓的19到越橘的206不等。对于由4种阿拉斯加野生浆果制成的加工产品，该研究的一个意外结果是，尽管常用的热处理技术会产生影响，但这些浆果的抗氧化剂水平仍然很高。当浆果脱水时，每克的ORAC值会增加。
阿拉斯加野生浆果具有极高的抗氧化水平。虽然烹饪会降低抗氧化水平，添加糖等成分会稀释抗氧化剂浓度，但由浆果制成的产品仍是抗氧化剂的重要来源。
