[follow the Wikipedia links]

We'll take a recess midway in our 4-part series on the goji berry

to celebrate the peak of the northern blackberry season!

wild and cultivated blackberries

(Rubus ursinus)

Nature in perfection...

Oregon's Marionberry

Courtesy of the Marionberry Website

Bred and cultivated at Oregon State University, Corvallis

A recent analysis using a method different than ORAC found

blackberries at the top of the antioxidant rankings for over 1000 common foods.

Antioxidant ranking for blackberries among the World's Healthiest Foods

Read the research abstract here:

Content of Antioxidant Compounds in Foods Consumed in the United States (click!)

High nutrient and pigment antioxidant levels especially for

Read more about nutrients at the Linus Pauling Institute

Micronutrient Information Center!

*** Some blackberry facts ***

• worldwide cultivated blackberry acreage is about 60,000 acres (total of about 100 square miles) in the United States, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica. Several countries of northern Europe and China are adding to the area rapidly

• wild plants growing especially in the Pacific Northwest -- British Columbia, Washington and Oregon -- where blackberry vines grow extensively along hedge rows, ditches and roads throughout the entire region, may actually triple that total acreage in North America

• could blackberry be the most productive berry on earth? It might -- only the wild and extensive plantings of seabuckthorn to control erosion throughout China and Russia may rivel it!

• world blackberry production from cultivated and wild plants was about 200,000 tons this year

• many varieties of blackberry have been bred to be thornless to prevent thorns from getting into machine-harvested crops ready for market

• a boysenberry is a hybrid of blackberry and raspberry introduced initially at Knott's Berry Farm in California

Boysenberries (Rubus ursinus x idaeus)

Courtesy, Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission

Recent Research on Blackberries

in Laboratory Models of Cancer

click on the links below to read the abstracts

• Characterization of blackberry extract and its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties

• Inhibition of cancer cell proliferation by blackberry juice

• Blackberry and other berry extracts inhibit growth of human cancer cells in vitro

• Cyanidin-3-glucoside, a natural product derived from blackberry, exhibits anti-cancer activity

Background

• Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission
• Linus Pauling Institute, Micronutrient Information Center, Oregon State University

Blackberries are a dietary source of

purple, blue and red anthocyanin pigments!

In your produce shopping and meal preparation, practice the Color Code!

• Heber D. What Color Is Your Diet?, HarperCollins, 2001

• Read the interview with Dr. David Heber here!

• Joseph JA et al. The Color Code, Hyperion Books, 2002

Archives (click!)

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Dr. Paul
The Berry Doctor

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