Cranberry: A good source of natural antioxidants

Abstract

The influence of extracts of cranbeny fruit and mixed tea (containing 40% cranberry) on stable 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals has been investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. All investigated extracts possess very high antioxidant activity, which increased dose-dependently at mass concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 3.5 mg/ml. The high contents of phenolic s (3.60-4.52 mg/g), anthocyanins (0.23-1.52 mg/g), flavan-3-ols (1.25-3.05 mg/g) and vitamin C (0.07-0.15 mg/g) in investigated extracts indicated that these compounds significantly contributed to the antioxidant activity. All these results show that the extracts of cranberry fruit and mixed tea can be used as easily accessible source of natural antioxidants and as a possible food supplement.

Keywords

• cranberry
• phenolics
• flavan-3-ols
• anthocyanins
• vitamin C
• antioxidant acivity
• ESR