Red Raspberries Super Fruit

Red Raspberries are used as a tonic for the female reproductive system. In fact, Red raspberry is arguably the most commonly used herbal medicine for childbirth.

Red raspberry leaves are rich in powerful antioxidant nutrition, containing vitamins A, B, C, G and E, calcium, phosphorus, and manganese, a trace mineral used by the body to produce healthy connective tissue, such as bone matrix and cartilage.

Red Raspberries are laxatives and are diuretic, encouraging urination. Red Raspberry super fruit also can help clear toxins from the system by inducing sweating and are also used as a traditional cooling remedy for fevers and cystitis. Red raspberry super fruit has also been used for indigestion, rheumatic pains, and raspberry and coughs.

Red raspberry has been used to aid in morning sickness, pregnancy and childbirth. Regular use of red raspberry leaf tea six to eight weeks before the baby is due and during labour makes labour easier, prevents hemorrhage and relieves labour pains. There are many reports that Red raspberry leaf tea can prevent miscarriage.

Red Raspberry and Cervical Cancer

The Hollings Cancer instititute at the University of South Carolina is doing a double blind study on a large group of 500 cervical cancer patients. For the nine years of studies have shown that a natural product called ellagic acid is causing G-arrest within 48 hours (inhibiting and stopping mitosis-cancer cell division), and apoptosis (normal cell death) within 72 hours, for breast, pancreas, esophageal, skin, colon and prostate cancer cells.

Clinical tests also show that ellagic acid prevents the destruction of the p53 gene by cancer cells. Additional studies suggest that one of the mechanisms by which ellagic acid inhibits mutagenesis and carcinogenesis is by forming adducts with DNA, thus masking binding sites to be occupied by the mutagen or carcinogen.

Ellagic acid can be found in different foods, but the clinic has identified the red raspberry as having the highest content of the acid.

The main berries being researched include black and red raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and elderberriesm, all rich in powerful antiocidants. Although blueberries have numerous health benefits, they don’t appear to have the same cancer fighting properties as other berries, researchers say. Berries contain a number of healthful compounds including vitamins A, C, E and folic acid; selenium; calcium; polyphenols; and compounds called anthocyanins, which give berries their color.

More Research on Berries

While berries, particularly raspberries, look like a promising super food, many people may not find it practical to eat them on a regular basis. A human would have to eat about a pound of berries a day to ingest the equivalent doses used in the rodent studies.

As a result, researchers are trying to identify the key powerful antioxidant ingredients that make berries cancer fighters. In a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, scientists compared rats who ingested a diet of whole black raspberries or a concentrated powder of black raspberry anthocyanins to rodents who ate a regular diet. Anthocyanin powder, which is high in berries, worked just as well as whole raspberries for slowing tumor growth. Both groups of rats consuming either whole berries or anthocyanin powder developed 50 percent fewer esophageal tumors compared to untreated rats.