Optimizing the Bioavailability and Metabolism of Aronia Berry Polyphenols for Improving Gut Health

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD): Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are two conditions of IBD that are characterized by chronic inflammation and damage of the gastrointestinal tract. In the United States alone, IBD are estimated to affect as many as 1.6 million people. IBD are associated with high morbidity, decreased quality of life, as well as substantial health care costs. IBD currently have no known cure, and treatment of IBD often requires the use of potent immunosuppressors which may lead to side effects or surgery.

Berries and prevention of chronic inflammation: Anthocyanins and other polyphenols are promising dietary agents to prevent and treat IBD by improving intestinal barrier dysfunction, inhibiting differentiation of pro-inflammatory T cells, reducing production of proinflammatory cytokines, and preventing oxidative stress. While preliminary studies are promising, translational human intervention studies are needed to refine delivery of polyphenol-rich foods and to confirm anti-inflammatory mechanisms.

Berries are rich dietary sources of polyphenols and essential nutrients. Polyphenol intake varies significantly by dietary patterns, but mean intake is estimated ~900 mg/day. Among berries, the polyphenol-dense aronia berry is one of the richest sources of fruit polyphenols.

Challenges associated with aronia berry consumption: In spite of its beneficial nutritional properties, the consumption of large amounts of whole aronia berry is not practical because of significant sorbitol and fiber content, which could lead to gastrointestinal discomfort for some individuals. Particularly, IBD patients often are required to limit fiber and whole fruit intake. The investigator's research group recently developed a novel method to extract polyphenols from fruit juice using food-grade lecithin which overcomes this problem.

The investigators hypothesize the resulting phospholipid-polyphenol (PLP) enriched material can improve the delivery of anthocyanins to the gut relative to a purified extract, and similar to that of whole berry. The aim of this study is to determine the comparative metabolism and bioavailability of aronia berry PLP intervention to extract, whole berry, and control food.