LHutt science leads to growing cranberry industry

10 September 2007

Lower Hutt scientist’s breakthrough leads to burgeoning billion dollar cranberry industry

Groundbreaking research by Lower Hutt scientist Dr Lai Yeap Foo into the chemical compounds of the cranberry that inhibit urinary tract infection has resulted in soaring global demand in cranberry-based products.

Dr Yeap Foo, who works for Industrial Research Limited at Gracefield – a Crown Research Institute – was contracted in the late 1990s by American researchers to ``isolate and identify the cranberry compounds that are responsible for providing urinary tract health’’.

Lead researcher, Dr Amy Howell, a plant pathologist from Rutgers University in New Jersey, had been told ``the one person in the world who can solve this mystery is Dr Yeap Foo in New Zealand’’.

Said Dr Yeap Foo: ``The Americans knew that cranberries inhibited urinary tract infection, but the compounds responsible for this were a mystery to them. We were able to solve this in our Lower Hutt laboratory.’’

The unusual proanthocyanidin compounds in cranberries inhibit urinary tract infections by a unique anti-adhesion mechanism preventing bacteria from adhering to the wall of the urinary tract as well as providing many other health benefits.

In the years since Dr Yeap Foo’s research, trade in cranberry products worldwide, dominated by United States company Ocean Spray, has increased by 150 percent.

Traditionally cranberries were made into sauce and eaten by Americans with their Thanksgiving turkey. Today it is available in juices, dried cranberries and capsules.

Since his work on cranberries, Dr Yeap Foo’s research has led to the first commercialisation of an antioxidant derived from Evening Primrose waste and the establishment of a Blenheim company to produce a solvent-free antioxidant from grape seeds.

Recently, he has developed an anti-inflammatory product from passionfruit skin that can lower the blood pressure of patients suffering from hypertension. This product has also been shown in a clinical trial to be effective in relieving the symptoms of asthma.

An American company, Kemin Health a division of Kemin Foods, has been given the exclusive license to manufacture and market the product worldwide.

Currently, Dr Yeap Foo is working on new natural functional ingredients for use in cosmetics for a New Zealand company. He is also hoping to attract research funding to develop a grapefruit skin wound-healing product for human use which has been shown to be effective in two animal trials.

On Monday (10 September) Dr Yeap Foo will be reunited in Wellington with Dr Amy Howell with whom he worked on the cranberry research. He is to be presented with a presentation for his major contribution to international molecular nutrition and food science at Industrial Research Limited, Gracefield Research Centre at 3.30pm.

ENDS

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