Strawberries: A Sweet, Vitamin-Rich Health Support

For those of you who may not know, the American Botanical Council offers free HerbClips on their website. Today they're featuring an HerbClip about rose hip bread and rose petal jelly, but last week the Clip was about strawberries and too sweet to pass up!

"The taste of a warm, juicy strawberry on a hot summer day is a delight to the mouth," wrote Lori Glenn, Managing Editor. "Even in February when southern California strawberries appear at the northern California farmer's markets, the sight of the red fruit is a joy they promise that better weather and a variety of berries will soon appear."

A signal of spring and summer to come, strawberries are not only sweet, their nutrient-rich too, as Glenn goes on to explain:

"Strawberries are a rich source of flavonoids, iron, folate, potassium, vitamins B, C and E, and phenols. In the strawberry, these phenols are led by anthocyanins and ellagitannins. The anthocyanins not only provide the strawberry's red color, but they also supply antioxidants. Strawberries' unique phenol content gives them heart-protective, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory abilities. Strawberries also have blood-purifying, astringent, diuretic, and liver-tonic properties. Medicinally, the fruit has been used to treat anemia, constipation, fevers, hangover, high blood pressure, gout, and rheumatism. Cut strawberries have even been used to whiten teeth and are said not to damage the enamel. In a recent study (see HC 110195-396), freeze-dried strawberries were found to lower cardiovascular disease risk factors in women with metabolic syndrome."

Eat up! Glenn suggests adding strawberries to a green salad with the addition of some chopped nuts and cheese drizzled with lemon and olive oil. How do you like your strawberries? If you have favorite, healthy strawberry recipes to share, please post them here!!

Also, yesterday's edition of The Oregonian included the article "Growing strawberries is deliciously easy here." According to the article, Oregon's climate is perfect for strawberries, but even if you don't live near ACHS in Oregon, there may be some use useful tips about planting, care, and harvest as well.

>> If you're interested in learning more about holistic nutrition, check out our new Nut 101 Introduction to Nutrition course here: http://www.achs.edu/course-desc.aspx?pid=196&id=4

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Passion flower peel may alleviate symptoms of asthma

Asthma, or airway inflammation and mucus secretion, can cause wheezing, coughing, and dyspnea. According to the HerbClips article "Efficacy of Purple Passion Fruit Peel Extract in Alleviating Asthmatic Symptoms in Adults," about 17 million people in the U.S. have asthma, an increasing number, which has led to increased interest in the use of nutritional protocols to control asthma.

Purple passion fruit Passiflora edulis peel (PFP) has a history of use with health challenges. In South American folk medicine, extracts of the peel have been used with anxiety, insomnia, asthma, and bronchitis. The extract contains three antioxidants (cyanidin-3O-glucoside, quercetin-3O-glucoside, and edulilic acid) and was "shown to modulate nitric oxide in hypertensive rats."

In a 2008 study with 42 subjects, all participants showed wheeze symptoms at baseline, but only 19.1 % of subjects who took PFP and 78.9% of participants in the placebo group showed symptoms at the end of the study. In addition, "of the approximately 90% and 79% of subjects in the PFP and placebo groups, respectively, with shortness of breath at baseline, approximately 10% and 37%, respectively, had symptoms after treatment. Of the nearly 100% of subjects with cough at baseline, approximately 20% and 50% of subjects in the PFP and placebo groups, respectively, had symptoms after treatment."

These results show that passion fruit peel extract significantly improves asthmatic symptoms after four weeks of usage without adverse effects. The authors of the study concluded that: "PFP extract may be safely offered to asthmatic subjects as an alternative treatment option to reduce clinical symptoms."

References:

Watson RR, Zibadi S, Rafatpanah H, et al. Oral administration of the purple passion fruit peel extract reduces wheeze and cough and improves shortness of breath in adults with asthma. Nutr Res. 2008;28: 166-171.

Based on article © Brenda Milot, ELS, "Efficacy of Purple Passion Fruit Peel Extract in Alleviating Asthmatic Symptoms in Adults," HerbClip

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