Red kiwi contains anthocyanins, bright red pigments that are highly potent antioxidants

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 11 Nov 2005 - 6:00 PDT

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First there was green, then yellow and now red-fleshed kiwifruit. A team of researchers in Italy and New Zealand has found that a newly developed variety of red-fleshed kiwifruit contain anthocyanins, bright red pigments that are highly potent antioxidants, which are thought to provide protection against heart disease and cancer. Kiwifruit already have the reputation of being among the most nutrient dense of all popular fruit and they are also high in antioxidant activity. Now, kiwis come in red and are just as healthy as the other varieties, the researchers say. But you might have to wait a while to try the new red kiwifruit: they are still being commercialized and not yet widely available. The study, believed to be the first to analyze the anthocyanin content of the red kiwi, was published in the Nov. 7 online version of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization, chartered by the U.S. Congress, with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 158,000 chemists and chemical engineers. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

The online version of the research paper cited above was initially published Nov. 7 on the journal's Web site. Journalists can arrange access to this site by sending an e-mail to newsroom@acs.org or calling the contact person for this release.

Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
American Chemical Society
http://www.acs.org