At many winter holiday tables, cranberries have pride of place as an accompaniment to roast turkey and an ingredient in sparkling cocktails.
Plants & Animals
Dec 20, 2023
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Lipstick can be a confidence booster, enhance a costume and keep lips from chapping. But sharing a tube with a friend or family member can also spread infections. To develop a version with antimicrobial properties, researchers ...
Biochemistry
Dec 16, 2022
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138
Doug Young has a special session for his advanced biochemistry class each year as Thanksgiving approaches. Young is an associate professor in William & Mary's Department of Chemistry. His research focus is on amino acids, ...
Biochemistry
Nov 17, 2022
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American farmers growing cranberries, a quintessential component of Thanksgiving feasts, have had to adapt their traditional methods to fight the effects of climate change.
Environment
Oct 18, 2022
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Cranberry farming was once a prominent industry in southeastern Massachusetts, but now that the cranberry industry is shifting to other areas of the United States and Canada, many New England cranberry bogs are retiring, ...
Ecology
Feb 21, 2022
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Nematodes with a taste for "insect innards" may offer cranberry growers a natural alternative to fighting hungry crop pests with chemical insecticides.
Agriculture
Jul 13, 2021
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SpaceX launched a newer, bigger version of its Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station on Sunday, marking the first time the company has two capsules in orbit at the same time.
Space Exploration
Dec 6, 2020
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212
Fresh produce is a major vehicle for noroviruses, a group of viruses that are the most common cause of gastroenteritis in developed countries. However, the viruses are quite resistant to cold pasteurization treatments such ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 19, 2020
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16
The global spread of antibiotic resistance is undermining decades of progress in fighting bacterial infections. Due to the overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, we are on the cusp of returning to a pre-antibiotic ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 28, 2019
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1124
Many people have heard that drinking cranberry juice can help prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Although clinical trials of this popular folk remedy have produced mixed results, some studies have shown that drinking ...
Biochemistry
May 1, 2019
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7
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right. They can be found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere.
Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 metres (7 ft) long and 5 to 20 centimetres (2 to 8 in) in height; they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.
Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain American states and Canadian provinces (see cultivation and uses below). Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, jam and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is regarded an indispensable part of traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menus and some European winter festivals.
Since the early 21st century within the global functional food industry, raw cranberries have been marketed as a "superfruit" due to their nutrient content and antioxidant qualities.[dead link]
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