Cranberries Acting as Antibiotics
Cranberries have a kind of tannins. This can transform E. coli bacteria. The organism Escherichia coli, a common intestinal organism that is widely used in genetic engineering, is a eubacterium. Scientists at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, the ways that render them unable to initiate any infection. The study shows the compounds that affect in E. coli in 3 devastating ways, all of which prevented the bacteria from adhering to cells in the body. The tannins change the shape of bacteria from rods to spheres. By altering their cell membranes, they make it difficult for the bacteria to make contact with the cells or from latching onto them should they get close enough.
Eubacteria are one of the two major groups of prokaryotes (cells in which the genetic material is not contained within a nuclear membrane). The prokaryotes include two branches or domains: eubacteria (or true bacteria) and archaea (or archaebacteria). These two major groups differ in basic genetic constitution and in the structures of some of their cellular components.[1]
Cranberry, common name for several species of low vines of a genus of the heath family, and for their small, sour, seedy fruit. The plants, which belong to the same genus as the blueberry, have drooping, pink flowers and small, thick, evergreen leaves. The small, or European, cranberry grows wild in marshlands of temperate and colder regions of Europe and North America. The large, or American, cranberry is cultivated in the northeastern United States in sand-covered bogs that can be flooded or drained at will. Flooding protects the vines from frosts and freezing weather and destroys insect pests. Most of the cranberry crop produced in the United States each year is canned as sauce or jelly or bottled as juice. The cowberry, or mountain cranberry, is common in both Europe and [2] North America. It is gathered and sold in considerable quantity but is rarely cultivated. The highbush cranberry, with its clusters of white flowers followed by red berries, is a shrub of the honeysuckle family. Its fruit is sometimes used as a substitute for cranberries.
Scientific classification: Cranberries belong to the genus Vaccinium of the family Ericaceae. The small, or European, cranberry is classifed as Vaccinium oxycoccos; the large, or American, cranberry as Vaccinium macrocarpon; and the cowberry, or mountain cranberry, as Vaccinium vitis-idaea. The highbush cranberry belongs to the family Caprifoliaceae and is classified as Viburnum opulus
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