Strawberry consumption improves plasma antioxidant status and erythrocyte resistance to oxidative haemolysis in humans

Sara Tulipani; Josè M Alvarez-Suarez; Franco Busco; Stefano Bompadre; Josè L Quiles; Bruno Mezzetti; Maurizio Battino

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.025

Strawberry consumption improves plasma antioxidant status and erythrocyte resistance to oxidative haemolysis in humans

Food Chem. 2011 Sep 1;128(1):180-6. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.025. Epub 2011 Mar 29.

Authors

Sara Tulipani¹, Josè M Alvarez-Suarez¹, Franco Busco², Stefano Bompadre³, Josè L Quiles⁴, Bruno Mezzetti⁵, Maurizio Battino⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
² Analysis Laboratory of INRCA Hospital, Ancona, Italy.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
⁴ Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology Mataix Verdú, Department of Physiology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁵ Department of Environmental and Crop Science (SAPROV), Faculty of Agriculture, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
⁶ Department of Biochemistry, Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy. Electronic address: m.a.battino@univpm.it.

PMID: 25214346
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.025

Abstract

Significant increases in the plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) have already been reported after acute intake of strawberries. In addition, antihaemolitic effects of strawberry extracts have been recently demonstrated in vitro, revealing that part of the antioxidant properties of strawberry bioactive compounds could lie in their localisation within cell membranes. However, there is a lack of research evidence from in vivo protracted strawberry consumption studies. We carried out a 16-day pilot study where 12 healthy subjects ingested 500g of antioxidants-rich strawberries daily, and we evaluated the potential effects of fruit consumption on biomarkers of plasma and cellular antioxidant status. A significant increase in fasting plasma TAC and in serum vitamin C concentrations were progressively observed during the period of strawberry supplementation. An enhanced resistance to haemolysis was also observed in both AAPH-treated and untreated erythrocytes, collected during and after the period of strawberry consumption. The results obtained in this work suggest that regular consumption of antioxidant-rich strawberries may exert an improvement on the plasma antioxidant status and an increase on the antihaemolitic defenses of human erythrocytes.

Keywords: Antihaemolytic effects; Plasma total antioxidant capacity; Strawberry; Vitamin C.