Herbal Bilberry, The Natural Anti Inflammatory Functional Food

By Kyle J. Norton


Inflammation is a natural process to protect our body against foreign stimuli or pathogens.

In the acute phase of infection, the immune system first line of defense responds to the bodily injury by stimulating the blood palette to the cover the site of damage and production of proinflammatory cytokines to kill off the pathogens which attempt to enter the body through the wound.

Overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines can also cause serious damage to the nearby healthy cells, leading to the formation of scars.

Most cases of infection were stopped at the acute phase of infection with 3 to 8 weeks. However, people with a weakened immune system, the acute infection may continue and progress to chronic inflammatory disease.

Some researchers suggested the immune system has evolved to protect our body by killing off all the foreign invasion within a set period of time, otherwise, it will adapt to the new change, leading to low-grade inflammation.

Low-grade inflammation is a chronic production, but a low-grade state, of inflammatory factors that have been found in a number of chronic diseases such as obesity and chronic pain.

Dr. Rosa Casas, the lead scientist in the examination of diet effects in chronic inflammatory disease wrote, "Unhealthy diets that include high intake of red and processed meat, sweets and desserts, potatoes, French fries, and refined grains) is associated with high plasma inflammatory biomarkers and a greater risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), cancer and other chronic diseases".

And, "On the other hand, prudent dietary patterns such as Mediterranean diet as well as intake of fruit, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, walnuts, legumes, whole grains, fish, cocoa, coffee, tea and wine is associated with a reduced plasma inflammatory biomarkers and a lower risk of CVD, T2D and other chronic disease".

The findings strongly suggested the risk of chronic low-grade inflammatory diseases can be reduced by following a healthy diet.

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.


The plant has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

In the course of finding natural ingredients for the treatment of diseases associated with inflammatory diseases, researchers examined the anti-inflammatory activity of anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract used as a supplement for ocular health worldwide.

The study included a mouse model of endotoxin-induced uveitis (EIU) compared to those of injecting lipopolysaccharide to show retinal inflammation.

According to the results of a tested assay, anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract pretreatment prevented the impairment of photoreceptor cell function that had been suppressed by injection of endotoxin and lipopolysaccharide by restoring the decreased and the shortening of outer segments of the infected cells.

Furthermore, the extract inhibited the production of inflammatory cytokines and rhodopsin decrease causes by endotoxin and lipopolysaccharide in the activation of a protein (STAT 3) associated with the regulation of cellular functions.

Moreover, by examining the inflammatory assay, the anti-inflammatory effect of anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract was attributed to the inhibition of the expression of free radical and activation of NF-κB, a redox-sensitive transcription factor, in the inflamed retina.

The results strongly suggested that anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract has a protective effect on visual function against retinal inflammation.

Additionally, in order to reveal more information of bilberry antiinflammatory activity, researchers investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of bilberry extract (BE, containing 42.04% anthocyanin) on Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) plus lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced liver injury and croton oil-induced ear edema in mice.

Injection of BE exerted a significant effect in the inhibition of croton oil-induced ear edema and liver inflammation provoked by P. acnes plus LPS observed by decreased levels of oxidative stress markers such as the plasma alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase with no side effects.

The levels of liver mRNA levels in the expression of proteins involved the production of inflammatory cytokines elevated by injection of croton oil and LPS were inhibited by the administration of BE.

Also, BE treatment reduced the liver oxidative stress caused by overexpression of malondialdehyde and NO contents significantly.

In other words, BE has a strong protective effect against acute and immunological inflammation.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed abundantly bioactive compound anthocyanin may be considered a functional remedy for the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with inflammation, pending to the confirmation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Vision preservation during retinal inflammation by anthocyanin-rich bilberryextract: cellular and molecular mechanism by Miyake S1, Takahashi N, Sasaki M, Kobayashi S, Tsubota K, Ozawa Y. (PubMed)

(2) Anti-inflammatory effects of anthocyanins-rich extract from bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) on croton oil-induced ear edema and Propionibacterium acnes plus LPS-induced liver damage in mice by Luo H1, Lv XD, Wang GE, Li YF, Kurihara H, He RR. (PubMed)
(3) Dietary Patterns, Foods, Nutrients, and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders by Rosa Casas, and Ramon Estruch. (Immunome Research)