Anthocyanin for Urinary Tract Infection

Anthocyanin is a flavonoid which is a water-soluble plant pigment that has been found to have a positive impact against various medical conditions. Anthocyanins give plant tissues a red, purple or blue pigment. Cranberries, with their rich red color, are full of anthocyanins. Cranberry juice has been used as an all-natural home remedy against urinary tract infections and new studies find that the anthocyanin in cranberry juice may actually combat the infection.

Urinary Tract Infections

• Urinary tract infections are bacterial infections of any part of the urinary system, including the urethra, bladder, ureters and kidneys. Most infections start in the lower urinary tract, the urethra or bladder, and are caused by gram negative rod bacteria that normally inhabit the digestive tract. The most common strain of bacteria to cause urinary tract infections is E. coli.

Mode of Action

• Due to the physiology of the male and female urinary tracts, women are more prone to urinary tract infections. The bacteria are introduced to the urethra through cross-contamination from the anus. The bacteria then grow and multiply in and around the opening of the urethra and can then spread up to the bladder. The bacteria use their thin hair-like projections (fimbriae) to adhere to the uroepithelial cells, skin cells lining the urethra and bladder. If left untreated, the infection can move along the urinary tract to the kidneys, which can create additional complications.

Cranberry Juice

• Cranberry juice has shown to exhibit various biological properties from inhibiting adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to the mucus in the gastric system to anti-cancer activity. The use of cranberry juice to protect against urinary tract infections has been a home remedy passed down through time. However studies published in the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association proved that drinking cranberry juice reduced urinary tract infections.

Anthocyanin

• Cranberries contain a variety of biologically beneficial ingredients, including anthocyanins, flavonoids, organic acids and more that may contribute to the protection against urinary tract infections. To determine what ingredient of the cranberries fights urinary tract infections a study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry looked at the absorption and excretion of anthocyanins after the consumption of cranberry juice. The study found that cranberry juice contains 12 different anthocyanins and that six of the 12 are excreted in the urine intact. This led to the conclusion that the main anthocyanins are absorbed by the circulatory system and transported to the urine as whole molecules, which may explain why cranberries and cranberry juice help to prevent urinary tract infections.

How Anthocyanins Work

• Research on the effectiveness of cranberry juice in protecting against urinary tract infections continues to be studied. Researchers theorize that the anthocyanins may block the bacteria from adhering to the uroepithelial cells. If the bacteria cannot attach to the cells, they will not be able to take hold in the urinary tract and cause an infection.