18. Ligon Berries:
They are also called cowberries, foxberries, and mountain cranberries that are red in color. It is used to make ligon berry jam, juice, syrup, compote, sauce, etc. It is rich in vitamin C, provitamin A, vitamin B (B1, B2, B3), potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous.
Lingonberries or vaccinium vitis-idaea, are red tart berries that flock the wild shrubs of Scandinavia and form an indispensable part of Nordic cuisine. These little-known distant cousins of cranberry fruit are much smaller and juicier than their other berry counterparts and are a potent source of preservatives and pectins. Known for their lovely appearance and bright color, these yummy-looking berries have a bitter taste and are best enjoyed as sweetened jams and other gourmet food. Also popular as cowberry, rock cranberry, foxberry and even whimberry, lingonberries come packed with copious nutritive and therapeutic benefits. Lingonberries are potent bearers of essential vitamins, minerals, acids and are treated as an antizyme. They are known to benefit anyone suffering from high blood pressure, poor digestion, frail metabolism and infections. To know more on the essential health benefits of this tangy red berry, read on.
Nutrition Benefits of Eating Lingonberry
Lingonberry, affectionately referred as the 漸ueen of Berries’ has a nice refreshing taste and is known to boost up the appetite. This wild berry comes packed with a bevy of health and nutritive benefits and is known to profit human health in more ways than one.
Lingonberry is highly esteemed in the medicinal world for its diverse spectrum of therapeutic actions. Lingonberry serves both as a diuretic and choleretic and is known to strengthen capillary tube too. The berries are treated as carditonic and hypotensive too.
The pearly red lingonberries are supposedly one of the richest sources of polyphenols. Lingonberries contain berry biocomplex that is believed to have an anti-sclerotic effect. They are also believed to be a rich source of copper, an essential mineral that helps in treating pancreatic diabetes.
Lingonberry is a popular cure for liver ailments, gastritis, hypertony and gastric ulcer. Its capacity to regulate salt metabolism makes it an effective remedy for treating diseases like renal lithiasis, uratic arthritis and rheumatism. Lingonberry also has antiseptic properties and can be used as an astringent too.
Lingonberry contains tannins that help to boost the blood vessel walls, resolve mineral metabolism and neutralize toxins, thereby improving digestion and toning up the body.
Lingonberries are touted as excellent cure for urinary tract infections. These pearly red, ripe berries are found to contain short-chained proanthocyans that is believed to keep away the infection causing bacteria from sticking to the bladder wall. Lingonberry juice when taken along with cranberry juice regularly is likely to reduce the risk of urinary tract infection in women by forty percent.
These small berries are believed to be excellent source of vitamin A, B and C and are power-packed with other essential nutrients like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium. Because of their rich nutritional value, lingonberries are believed to favor both blood and bone health.
Apart from being rich in essential nutrients, these humble berries are a rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Lingonberries are also found to be a potent source of essential fatty acids and are highly esteemed because of their anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Regular consumption of lingonberries keeps the free radicals from spreading in the body.
Lingonberries, just like their better-known cranberry cousins, are a storehouse of flavonoids, especially quercetin. Apart from having anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, quercetin has antihistamine properties that help to alleviate allergy symptoms.
Like most other berries, lingonberries are known to boost the levels of good cholesterol, improve blood pressure. They are thereby held as a productive source of heart health.
Animal studies have shown how the lingonberry can lower inflammatory molecules, block oxidants from destroying tissue, and also help the body replace important antioxidants, like glutathione, which is a master antioxidant in our body. Lingonberry has also been shown to increase red blood cell and liver enzymes needed for antioxidant protection. We need antioxidants to protect vessels and nerve tissue, and also to help decrease the damage from inflammation. Proanthocyanidin extracts from lingonberries were also found to be effective against the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause a wide variety of infections.
Lingonberry Health Benefits
Lingonberry contains quercetin, it may have a lot of health benefits. And, here we highlight a few potential lingonberry
benefits:
Antioxidant / Anti-cancer cells activity of lingonberry
Lingonberry has been shown to contain high antioxidant activity. Researchers isolated six tannins from linonberry. and found that cinnamtannin B1 displayed the strongest anti-lipid peroxidation activity, proanthocyanidin A-1 displayed the strongest superoxide scavenging activity, and epicatechin-(4beta–> 6)-epicatechin-(4beta–>8, 2beta–>O–> 7)-catechin had the strongest anti-superoxide formation effect. And, crude extracts of lingonberry were able to inhibit ornithine decarboxylase activity. The proanthocyanidin fraction of lingonberry exhibited anticarcinogenic activity. Researchers from U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that lingonberries contained potent free radical scavenging activities for DPPH*, ROO*, *OH, and O2*- radicals. They further reported that lingonberry extract was able to suppress TPA-induced neoplastic transformation of JB6 P(+) mice cells and lingonberry extract could also induce apoptosis (death) of human leukemia HL-60 cells in a dose-independent manner. Thus, lingonberry may benefit people at risk of certain cancers, but more studies are needed to prove this idea.
Lingonberry’s antimicrobial effects and its effect on urinary tract infection Lingonberry may benefit people suffered from certain infections. In a study, six tannins from lingonberry showed anti-microbial activities and epicatechin-(4beta–>8)-epicatechin-(4beta–>8, 2beta–>O–>7)-catechin had a strong antimicrobial activity against P. gingivalis and P.
intermedia, but not A. actinomycetemcomitans. While, the other tannins tested did not show antimicrobial activity. In a separated study, scientists recruited 150 women with rinary tract infection caused by Escherichia coli and they served them with 50 ml of cranberry-lingonberry juice concentrate daily for six months or 100 ml of lactobacillus drink five days a week for one year, or no intervention. They found a 20% reduction in absolute risk in the cranberry-lingonberry group compared with the control group.
Disclaimer
The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
