[follow the Wikipedia links]

Tart cherries (Prunus cerasus) from near Lake Erie, Ontario, Canada. Nature's anti-inflammatory food ?

Although not berries, sour ("tart") cherries have similar pigment phytochemicals linked by recent medical research to anti-inflammatory effects.

The Wikipedia definitions of arthritis and inflammation (click)

Are cherries and berries a gold mine for developing pain medications from

these natural plant sources?

Could just having more plant foods like these in the diet

be sufficient to deter the pain of chronic inflammation?

A study published in April 2007 (link below) indicates new evidence that this could be the case.

Let's have a look at anti-inflammatory mechanisms one by one

Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2007 Apr 30:

Natural products as a gold mine for arthritis treatment.

Khanna D et al.

Division of Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Institute for the Study of Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

The medical abstract is here, although it is very technical (click!)

Mechanisms of pain in arthritis and how berry and cherry antioxidants may help.... in plain English (italics, bold)

1. altering regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. tumour necrosis factor and interleukin-1beta) and pro-inflammatory enzymes that mediate the production of prostaglandins (e.g. cyclooxygenase-2) and leukotrienes (e.g. lipooxygenase)

* Those are awkward scientific terms but mean more simply that berry and cherry pigment antioxidants deregulate enzymes having roles in inflammation and pain

2. expression of adhesion molecules and matrix metalloproteinases

* berry and cherry pigments may turn off expression of these cell molecules involved in producing pain

3. proliferation of joint fibroblasts

* increased production of fibroblasts -- cells inside joints where pain occurs -- may be prevented by berry and cherry pigments

In plain English -- antioxidant phytochemicals from plants, mainly their pigments, may interfere with enzyme and cell production mechanisms

involved in feeling pain.

All of the research is preliminary and requires human clinical trials for proof.

Pigments and phytochemicals from a variety of plant foods can suppress cell inflammation and pain

• curcumin (the yellow pigment from turmeric in curries)

• resveratrol (red grapes and other berries, red wine, peanuts)

• tea polyphenols, especially from green tea

• genistein (soy products)

• quercetin (numerous dark berries, onions)

Other research

• Cherries reduce inflammation markers in healthy men and women

• Cherry anthocyanins suppress inflammation-induced pain in rats

• Anti-inflammatory anthocyanins from berries

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Dr. Paul
The Berry Doctor