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Published online today in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology, the study claims to be the first to prove the connection between flavonoid consumption and stronger immune systems.

Flavonoids are a class of antioxidants found in plants that are especially concentrated in fruits and vegetables such as broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, apples, beans and onions. They have been shown to have various benefits including cancer reduction, heart health and free radical (oxidation) control, although their link with immunity is less established.

“In vitro studies have repeatedly shown that fruits containing flavonoids have a lot of health benefits. But these studies don’t really pin-point the effects to the flavonoids,” explained the study’s second author Dr Martin Schaefer.

“Our study is the first that really establishes the link between flavonoids and immunity because we didn’t feed the entire fruit to the birds – we fed them an extract containing only flavonoids,” he told NutraIngredients.com.

Although the findings are not transferable to humans, Dr Schaefer said they provide a “pretty good indication” that similar results could be expected in humans.

Healthy birds

For the current study, researchers from the University of Freiburg and the Max Plank Institute for Ornithology in Germany offered a group of blackcaps a choice of two foods. These were identical in all respects except for the amount of flavonoids they contained.

The birds were found to naturally select the food with added flavonoids, suggesting a “learned selection”.

However, of particular interest to the functional food and dietary supplement industries are the researchers’ second round of findings, which revealed that the flavonoids also impacted the birds’ health.

Those birds that had consumed the flavonoid extracts were found to have a “significantly” higher immune response, measured by antibody production.

When injected with red blood cells from sheep, 54 percent of the supplemented birds had a positive immune response, compared to 30 percent of the non-supplemented birds.

The levels of flavonoids used were equivalent to the amounts that would have been obtained through eating 1-2 blackberries, bilberries or elderberries a day.

Because the birds weighed only 20g, this would roughly translate into several hundred berries a day for humans, said Dr Schaefer.  However, in extract form these levels would be easier to consume, he said.

Source: ‘Fruit for health: The effect of flavonoids on humoral response and food selection in a frugivorous bird’, Carlo Catoni et al (2008).

Functional Ecology, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01400

In the first study of its kind, a team of researchers led by Prof Aedin Cassidy at the University of East Anglia and Dr Paul Kroon at the Institute of Food Research, will explore whether the skin’s condition is improved by a compound which gives berries their vibrant colour (called ‘anthocyanin’).

In a 12-week trial starting in September, post-menopausal women will consume either extracts from elderberries or placebo capsules, and will have their skin’s structure and appearance measured with state-of-the-art equipment used by experts in skin science. At the same time, researchers will also test whether the elderberry extract can reduce risk factors for heart disease.

“We already know that a healthy diet can help protect against heart disease and skin damage, and that a mixture of similar food components have been shown to improve the skin’s structure. There is also evidence that the active components have anti-inflammatory properties, which may be important in helping people stay healthy,” said UEA’s Dr Peter Curtis who is leading the project.
“If the results of our study are positive, it may lead to innovations in skin health products and may also give us vital information about diets which promote healthier hearts.”

“I think that black elderberry extract has a great role to play – it really can save lives,” Dr Mumcuoglu, who discovered these properties in the berry, stated. “To my knowledge, it’s the only product that can cut the flu in half  before complications have a chance of setting in. If we do have a cure for chicken flu, this is a really positive thingl.”

Dr Mumcuoglu (pronounced mum-shu-glu) was born in Algeria and immigrated to Israel in 1974. She holds a Doctorate in Virology, and studied bird flu during her Ph.D. In the 1980s, Mumcuoglu began studying the natural healing elements of the elderberry from the black elder tree (Sambucus nigra). Her interest in the plant was piqued because it had been used in medicine for many centuries. It was first referred to as a healer in the 5th century BC and received mentions in the writings of Hippocrates, Dioscurides and Plinius.

Elderberry wine was traditionally used for influenza and the ill effects of the chills, and the juice of the black elderberry has historically been an invaluable remedy. The elder has often been called the ‘medicine chest” of the country people.

During Dr Mumcuoglu’s research she discovered the key active ingredient in elderberry and when she tested it against the flu virus, she found it effective. On her arrival in Israel, Mumcuoglu joined the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and continued her research.

The result was Sambucol, a patented natural formula which contains a potent antiviral compound, AntiVirin, isolated from the black elderberry, and three flavanoids – naturally occurring plant antioxidants.

Mumcuoglu first tested her research on patients in the Southern Israel flu epidemic of 1992/3. The results were extremely encouraging. Within 24 hours, 20% of those patients taking Sambucol had dramatic improvements in symptoms like fever, muscle aches and pains and coughing. By the second day, 73% were improved and by day three, 90%. In the untreated group, only 16% felt better after two days. The majority of that group took almost a week to begin feeling better.

To contain a bird flu epidemic, it’s essential to detect and contain bird flu (also called avian influenza) as quickly as possible.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization noted that it has received reports of 328 confirmed human cases of bird flu, including 200 deaths, worldwide since 2003.

Most of those cases have occurred in Asia. None have happened in the U.S.

Currently available bird flu tests take four hours to work, according to Juergen Pipper, PhD, of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore.

Pipper’s team says their new bird flu test also costs 2,000% to 5,000% less than current bird flu tests, which could be a boon to developing countries without big budgets for bird flu.

The test requires the patient to get their throat swabbed. Health care workers would take a droplet from the throat swab and put the droplet on a no-stick surface that spins like a CD.

The test uses what are called “superparamagnetic particles” to hunt for the H5N1 virus, and the whole process “is completed in less than 28 minutes,” the scientists write in Nature Medicine.

They suggest that their technique could make a good platform to test for other infectious diseases.

For instance, Pipper’s team writes that the test “could easily be adapted for other infectious diseases, such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), HIV, and hepatitis B.”