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Cherry Focus - August 2007
(Alternatively, you can read the key news stories from this newsletter on line in the "News" section of this site.)

Cherry Focus - February 2007
(Alternatively, you can read this newsletter on line in the "News" section of this site.)

Australian Cherry Industry Report (2006)
"Taking Stock and Setting Direction: A Working Plan for the Australian Cherry Industry"

HAL Report to 2003 Cherry Conference
"Cherry Annual Industry Report 2002-03"

2008-09 Cherry Annual Industry Report

Across Industry Annual Report 2008-09

Useful Information

The July 2006 issue of the Food & Nutrition Research Briefs is  available on the web at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb/fnrb0706.htm

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Bing Cherries' Anti-Inflammatory Effects Documented

Bing cherries may help fight the inflammation of arthritis, heart disease and cancer, ARS scientists and their colleagues report in the April 2006 issue of the Journal of Nutrition (volume 136, pages 981 to 986).

Investigators at ARS’ Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Davis, Calif., led the research, which was based on tests of 18 healthy men and women volunteers, aged 45 to 61, who ate a total of about 45 fresh Bing cherries throughout the day for 28 consecutive days.

Blood samples indicated that levels of three telltale indicators of inflammation—nitric oxide, C reactive protein and a marker for T cell activation—dropped 18 to 25 percent by the end of the cherry-eating stint.

However, natural chemicals in cherries apparently work selectively, suppressing production of these three inflammation-linked compounds, but not of some three dozen others, the researchers found.

The grower-sponsored California Cherry Advisory Board, Lodi, Calif., helped fund the research.

For details contact: Darshan S. Kelley, (530) 752-5138; USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Davis,
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http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/4/981

Nutrition and Disease

Consumption of Bing Sweet Cherries Lowers Circulating Concentrations of Inflammation Markers in Healthy Men and Women1,2

Darshan S. Kelley*,3, Reuven Rasooly*, Robert A. Jacob*, Adel A. Kader and Bruce E. Mackey**

* U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS, Western Human Nutrition Research Center, and Department of Nutrition, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616; Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; and ** Western Regional Research Center, ARS, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, CA 94710

3 To whom correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: dkelley@whnrc.usda.gov .

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of consuming sweet cherries on plasma lipids and markers of inflammation in healthy humans. Healthy men and women (n = 18) supplemented their diets with Bing sweet cherries (280 g/d) for 28 d. After a 12-h fast, blood samples were taken before the start of cherry consumption (study d 0 and 7), 14 and 28 d after the start of cherry supplementation (study d 21 and 35), and 28 d after the discontinuation (study d 64) of cherry consumption. After cherries were consumed for 28 d, circulating concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed, and secreted (RANTES), and NO decreased by 25 (P < 0.05), 21 (P < 0.05), and 18% (P = 0.07) respectively. After the discontinuation of cherry consumption for 28 d (d 64), concentrations of RANTES continued to decrease (P = 0.001), whereas those of CRP and NO did not differ from either d 7 (pre-cherries) or d 35 (post-cherries). Plasma concentrations of IL-6 and its soluble receptor, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 did not change during the study. Cherry consumption did not affect the plasma concentrations of total-, HDL-, LDL-, and VLDL- cholesterol, triglycerides, subfractions of HDL, LDL, VLDL, and their particle sizes and numbers. It also did not affect fasting blood glucose or insulin concentrations or a number of other chemical and hematological variables. Results of the present study suggest a selective modulatory effect of sweet cherries on CRP, NO, and RANTES. Such anti-inflammatory effects may be beneficial for the management and prevention of inflammatory diseases.