Research on Chocolate, Wine, and other Antioxidant Rich Foods Highlighted by American Chemical Society Symposium

The health benefits of antioxidants found in some food such as chocolate, tea, red wine, fruits and vegetables was the topic presented at a symposium by the American Chemical Society during its 246th National Meeting & Exposition.

Antioxidants are substances that are known to have health benefits that include reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. These protect cells against molecules produced by the body that damages cells known as free radicals.

The symposium,"Phenolic Derivatives for Food and Human Health", focuses on the antioxidant substances found in red wine, dark chocolate, olive oil, coffee, tea, and other foods and dietary supplements that are believed to bring about a healthy and long life.

Topics during the symposium include:

• The healthful effects of curcumin, found naturally in the spice, turmeric
• Substances in dried ginger that kill cancer cells
• How large intestine microbes interact with cranberry antioxidants in the diet
• Using biotechnology to make more effective antioxidants

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Whole Fruit Diet of Blueberries Grapes and Apples Lower Risk of Diabetes By 23%

Based on data gathered between 1984 and 2008 from 187,382 participants, scientists have released a study that show whole fruit diet particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes while fruit juice consumption increases the risk.

The study shows that a daily diet one or more servings of fruit juice increases risk by as high as 21% while 2 servings of whole fruits per week lowers type 2 diabetes risk by 23%.

Diabetes is a disease where the body has difficulty in controlling blood sugar (glucose) levels. Glucose is used as a source of energy by the cells and is transported there through the hormone, insulin. People with diabetes have problems with how insulin is handled by the body; either the cells reject it or that there is not enough insulin produced.

There are two types of diabetes; Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is when the immune system starts attacking insulin producing beta cells which prevents the body to manufacture insulin. Formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes, Type 1 diabetes is generally hereditary and manifests during childhood.

Type 2 diabetes happens when the cells start rejecting the body's produced insulin or that the body does not produce enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and can be associated with risk factors such as obesity, physical inactivity and also can be hereditary.

Avocados Contribute To Significantly Better Nutrient Intake and More Positive Health Indicators

New analysis of data suggest that people who consume avocados as part of their diet have a better diet quality, higher nutrient intake levels and manifests more positive health indicators than those who don't.

The avocado fruit (Persea Americana) has recently been researched as a good source of anti-oxidants. The anti-oxidants found in avocados, specifically in avocado oil, are far better than those found in other fruits.

Last year, research done at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in México showed that avocado contains anti-oxidants protect mitochondria (the part of the cell responsible for producing energy) from free radicals.

Anti-oxidants found in other fruits and vegetables are unable to protect the mitochondria enabling free radicals to damage it. This causes energy production to stop causing the cell to collapse and die.

Now, in a related study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), data confirms the health benefits of consuming avocados and expands on the previous study by including other beneficial factors such as positive health indicators and better nutrient intake.

Carotenoids In Fruits Prevent Or Delay Onset of ALS

Increased consumption of foods containing carotenoids, particularly beta-carotene and lutein, may prevent or delay the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

ALS is a neurological disease that affects the voluntary muscle movement of the body. When a person with ALS wants to move a limb or part of the body, the brain signal carrying that instruction (motor signals) does not reach the designated part or muscle.

Motor signals travel from the brain through the CNS (Central Nervous System) and on to the PNS (Peripheral Nervous System) to which the muscles are attached. In ALS, the CNS and PNS start to deteriorate in that the muscles does not receive any instructions at all. In time, the muscle starts to atrophy and ends up shriveling up and eventually die.

High Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Promotes Calm, Positive and Happy Behavior

Research published in the British Journal of Health Psychology show that high fruit and vegetable consumption promotes a happier and positive mood behavior among young people.

Fruits and vegetables are the dietary source for phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are chemical compounds that are produced by plants.

There is wide belief that phytochemicals like anti-oxidants and carotenoids have a beneficial effect on the body. Laboratory studies suggest that these nutrients may reduce the risk of cancer. Most claims covering phytochemicals are just observational studies. Without any evidence based study, the US FDA restricts the promotion of health claims of the product.

Despite this, anti-oxidants like resveratrol (an anti-oxidant with anti-aging claims) are fast becoming popular over the counter nutritional supplement.

A recent study also published in the British Journal of Health Psychology showed a lower risk of depression in people with high carotenoid levels.

AHA Study Shows Eating Flavonoid Rich Berries Reduce Heart Attack Risk in Women by 30%

A study released by the American Heart Association shows that women who ate at least three servings of blueberries and strawberries per week reduce their risk of a heart attack by 30%.

Flavonoids are organic chemicals that are found in plants. These nutrients have beneficial effects on the human body. Chemicals that are found naturally in plants are called phytochemicals.

Berries, tea, apples, soy food, and red wine are some of the food that are rich in flavonoids.

The Zutphen Elderly Study, the Seven Countries Study and a cohort study in Finland show that consuming flavonoid has an inverse effect with coronary disease. Results of the study show that people who consumed about five to six cups of flavonoid-rich tea per day had a lower death rate from heart disease than people with a low intake of flavonoids.

The link between flavonoids and coronary heart disease like atherosclerosis (the accumulation of fat deposits in the arteries), may be due to the antioxidant properties of flavonoids. Flavonoids also have been shown to inhibit the aggregation and adhesion of platelets in blood, which may be another way they lower the risk of heart disease. Soy foods which contains isoflavones (a major flavonoid category) have been reported to lower plasma cholesterol and also to have effects similar to estrogen.

Spray-On Hydrogel Coating To Delay Ripening of Bananas Being Developed

Bananas are one of the oldest harvested fruits. They are from herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. Banana plants are native to tropical areas in the South and Southeast Asia. The banana plant, often mistaken for a tree, is the largest herbaceous flowering plant.

Bananas grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant and come in different sizes and colors. When ripe, bananas turn yellow, purple, or red.

Bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, soluble fiber, and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and potassium.

Export bananas are picked green. These are refrigerated in lower temperatures to halt the ripening process. When ready, they are put in special air-tight rooms filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening.

For tree ripened bananas, retailers immediately put them on sale since the shelf life for these fruits are limited to only 7–10 days.

Good news for banana lovers: Help may be on the way to slow that rapid over-ripening

A solution finally may be at hand for the number one consumer gripe about America's favorite fresh fruit ― bananas and their tendency to ripen, soften and rot into an unappetizing mush, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

Scientists speaking here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, described efforts to develop a spray-on coating that consumers could use to delay the ripening of those 6.4 billion pounds of bananas that people in the U.S. eat every year.

The coating is a so-called "hydrogel," a superabsorbent material like those with many medical and commercial uses, made from chitosan, a substance derived from shrimp and crab shells. Xihong Li, Ph.D., who presented the report, noted that chitosan is attracting considerable attention in efforts to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer due to its action in killing bacteria that cause produce to rot, low cost and other properties. Until now, however, it has not been used to slow the ripening of bananas.

"We found that by spraying green bananas with a chitosan aerogel, we can keep bananas fresh for up to 12 days," said Li, who is the study's leader. "Once bananas begin to mature, they quickly become yellow and soft, and then they rot. We have developed a way to keep bananas green for a longer time and inhibit the rapid ripening that occurs. Such a coating could be used at home by consumers, in supermarkets or during shipment of bananas."

Discovery Leads To Growing Better Tomatoes

Tomatoes are from the tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum). Although they are fruits, they are better known as a vegetable. The tomato is one of the most common garden fruits in the United States because of the volume of fruit the plant provides.

Tomatoes are a good source of antioxidants. These are substances that protects the body's cells against the effects of free radicals that are responsible for aging and tissue damage.

Tomatoes are also a good source of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin c, beta-carotene, manganese (a mineral), and vitamin E. They are also abundant in phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are  plant material that have been shown to be necessary for sustaining human life.

Some phytonutrients that tomatoes contain are:

• Flavonones
• naringenin
• chalconaringenin
• Flavonols
• rutin
• kaempferol
• quercetin
• Hydroxycinnamic acids
• caffeic acid
• ferulic acid
• coumaric acid
• Carotenoids
• lycopene
• lutein
• zeaxanthin
• beta-carotene
• Glycosides
• esculeoside A
• Fatty acid derivatives
• 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid

Discovery may lead to new tomato varieties with vintage flavor and quality

A new discovery could make more tomatoes taste like heirlooms, reports an international research team headed by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist.

The finding, which will be reported in the June 29 issue of the journal Science, has significant implications for the U.S. tomato industry, which annually harvests more than 15 million tons of the fruit for processing and fresh-market sales.

"This information about the gene responsible for the trait in wild and traditional varieties provides a strategy to recapture quality characteristics that had been unknowingly bred out of modern cultivated tomatoes," said Ann Powell, a biochemist in UC Davis' Department of Plant Sciences and one of the lead authors of the study.

Cheap and Efficient Zero Waste Biorefinery Converts Orange Peels To Fuel

Orange peel wastes (WOP) are one of the most under-utilized and most geographically diverse bio-waste residues on the planet.

After extraction of the juice, the residual peel accounts for 50% of the weight of the fruit. The process to treat and refine these products to something useful is costly and highly regulated.

Orange and other citrus peel waste reaches millions of tons globally and scientists believe that there is a real opportunity to utilize this resource. But current applications and uses for WOP are limited due to its complex chemical and material nature.

New 'OPEC' offers sustainable smell of sweet success

The least appealing part of the world's most popular citrus fruits could soon be more alluring to cosmetic and drug manufacturers and, perhaps, eventually help heat our homes and fuel our cars.

In research described today at the 16th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, scientists from the United Kingdom said they have developed a sustainable way to extract and find uses for virtually every bit of the 15.6 million tons of orange and other citrus peel discarded worldwide every year. These uses could include biosolvents, fragrances and water purification. The project, dubbed the Orange Peel Exploitation Company (OPEC), is a partnership between researchers from the University of York, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the University of Cordoba, Spain. The research team hopes to have a prototype biorefinery up and running soon.

The conference is sponsored by the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute® (ACS GCI).

The Science and Chemistry of Tomatoes

Tomatoes are fruits found from the tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum). Better known as a vegetable, the tomato is one of the most common garden fruits in the United States. It is also known that the plant produces the fruit abundantly.

Tomatoes are a good source of antioxidants. Antioxidants are substances that may protect the body's cells against the effects of substances responsible for aging and tissue damage also known as free radicals.

Tomatoes are a good source of vitamin c, beta-carotene, manganese (a mineral), and vitamin E. In terms of plant material that have been shown to be necessary for sustaining human life (phytonutrients), tomatoes are a very good source. Some phytonutrients that tomatoes contain are:

• Flavonones
• naringenin
• chalconaringenin
• Flavonols
• rutin
• kaempferol
• quercetin
• Hydroxycinnamic acids
• caffeic acid
• ferulic acid
• coumaric acid
• Carotenoids
• lycopene
• lutein
• zeaxanthin
• beta-carotene
• Glycosides
• esculeoside A
• Fatty acid derivatives
• 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid

The secret to good tomato chemistry

There is nothing better than a ripe, red, homegrown tomato, and now researchers reporting online on May 24 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have figured out just what it is that makes some of them so awfully good (and your average supermarket tomato so bland).

"We now know exactly what we need to do to fix the broken tomato," said Harry Klee of the University of Florida.

Tomato flavor depends on sugars, acids, and a host of less well-defined aroma volatiles (so named for the ease with which they vaporize, sending scent molecules into the air). Klee's team set out to define the chemicals that are most important to our fondness for one particular tomato or another.

Avocado Oil - Healthy Treatment Against Aging And Harmful Free Radicals

Avocado oil is the edible oil that is pressed from the avocado fruit (Persea Americana).

Avocado oil functions well as a carrier oil for other flavors. It is high in monounsaturated fats and vitamin E. For culinary purposes, it is used as an ingredient in other dishes and as a cooking oil. Other purposes of avocado oil is for lubrication, and in cosmetics for its regenerative and moisturizing properties.

Avocado oil: The 'olive oil of the Americas'?

Mexican researchers find the fruit bolsters cells’ power centers against harmful free radicals

Atmospheric oxygen facilitated the evolution and complexity of terrestrial organisms, including human beings, because it allowed nutrients to be used more efficiently by those organisms, which in turn were able to generate more energy. However, as we find out more about how oxygen molecules work inside the body, more attention is being paid to their not-so-good effects, and researchers are seeking ways to thwart them.

A number of environmental factors -- such as pollution, cigarette smoke and radiation -- can turn the oxygen molecules found in mitochondria, the power plants of cells, into free radicals. These unstable molecules destroy virtually all the normal molecules forming cells, such as lipids, proteins and even DNA, by turning them into free radicals, too. This destructive phenomenon is associated with aging and occurs in a variety of diseases, including hypertension and diabetes, which represent major challenges for health systems due to their great social and economic costs. Those costs have motivated scientists worldwide to undertake intensive searches for substances that bolster cell resistance to the harmful effects of free radicals.

Eating Flavonoids Can Help Protect Against Parkinson's Disease

A study suggests that eating flavonoids protects men against Parkinson's disease

Flavonoids are polyphenol (a structural class of natural, synthetic, and semisynthetic organic chemicals) antioxidants found naturally in plants. Flavonoids are organic compounds that have no direct involvement with the growth or development of plants (secondary metabolites).

Flavonoids are plant nutrients that when consumed in the form of fruits and vegetables are non-toxic as well as potentially beneficial to the human body.

Eating flavonoids protects men against Parkinson's disease

Men who eat flavonoid-rich foods such as berries, tea, apples and red wine significantly reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to new research by Harvard University and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Published in the journal Neurology ®, the findings add to the growing body of evidence that regular consumption of some flavonoids can have a marked effect on human health. Recent studies have shown that these compounds can offer protection against a wide range of diseases including heart disease, hypertension, some cancers and dementia.

Flavonoids in Citrus Fruits Lowers Stroke Risk

Research shows that eating citrus fruit which are high on flavonoids may lower women's stroke risk.

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds found naturally in plants. Polyphenolic compounds are alcohols that contain two or more benzene rings that each have at least one hydroxyl group (OH) attached.

Flavonoids occur naturally in fruits, vegetables and beverages (tea, coffee, dark chocolate, beer, wine and fruit drinks). The flavonoids are believed to possess beneficial effects on human health as they are said to have antiviral, anti-allergic, antiplatelet, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antioxidant activities.

Flavonoids are categorized into

• Flavonols
• Flavones
• Flavanones
• Isoflavones
• Catechins
• Anthocyanidins
• Chalcones.

According to research reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, a category of flavonoids found in citrus fruits may reduce stroke risk. This prospective study is one of the first in which researchers examine how consuming flavonoid subclasses affects the risk of stroke.

"Studies have shown higher fruit, vegetable and specifically vitamin C intake is associated with reduced stroke risk," said Aedín Cassidy, Ph.D., the study's lead author and professor of nutrition at Norwich Medical School in the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom. "Flavonoids are thought to provide some of that protection through several mechanisms, including improved blood vessel function and an anti-inflammatory effect."