Strawberries protect the stomach of the alcohol.

-European researchers have found in an experiment with rats that strawberries intake reduces the damage that produces alcohol in the gastric mucosa. The study, which publishes open access Plos One journal, can help improve treatments against stomach ulcers

Spain, 2011-October A team of Italian, Serbian and Spanish researchers confirmed the protective effect of strawberries in a stomach of mammal damaged by alcohol. Scientists have provided ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to laboratory rats and have verified that the gastric mucosa of those who previously ate Strawberry extract suffered less injury, according to published in the journal Plos One.

The positive effects of strawberries are both associated with its antioxidant capacity and high content phenolic compounds (polyphenols), as that activate the own enzymes or the body’s antioxidant defenses ”, explains to SINC Sara Tulipani, researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of the work.

The findings indicate that a diet rich in strawberries can exert a beneficial effect on prevention of gastric diseases related to the generation of radical free or other reactive oxygen species. This fruit might mitigate the formation of stomach ulcers in humans.

the positive effects of strawberries are associated with its ability to antioxidant.

Gastritis or inflammation of the lining of the stomach, as well as interact with alcohol consumption, also can occur by viral infections or by the action of anti-inflammatory drugs drugs (such as aspirin) or those used in the treatment against the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.

In these cases eating strawberries during or after the pathology could alleviate the injury to the gastric mucosa ”, suggests Maurizio Battino, Coordinator of the research group from the Universidad Politécnica de la Marche (UNIVPM, Italy), in the light of the results.

Less ulceration after eating strawberries

The team found less ulcerations in the stomachs of those rats that, prior to receiving alcohol, had ingested during 10 days extract of strawberries (40 milligrams per day per kilogram of weight).

This work has not been raised to alleviate the effects of a binge, but to find protective molecules of the gastric mucosa damage that can cause different agents ”, emphasizes Battino.

Treatments for ulcers or other gastric diseases are currently looking for new protective drugs with antioxidant properties, and strawberries compounds can help in this line.

As well as scientists from the UNIVPM and the UB, in this research involving others universities of Salamanca and Granada in Spain, and Belgrade in Serbia.

Bibliographic reference:

Jose M. Alvarez-Suarez, Dragana Dekanski, Slavica Ristić, Nevena V. Radonjić, NataÅ¡a D. Petronijević, Francesca Giampieri, Paola Astolfi, Ana M. González-Paramás, Celestino Santos-Buelga, Sara Tulipani, José l. Quiles, Bruno Mezzetti, Maurizio Battino. Strawberry saponins Attenuate Ethanol-Induced Gastric Lesions in Rats by Activation of Antioxidant Enzymes and Attenuation of MDA Increase ”. PLoS One 6 (10).