Aronia Powder

Aronia melanocarpa (Michx. Elliott, Rosaceae) is a shrub native to North America, and its fresh fruits are usually not consumed directly because of their bitter taste. However, these berries are used in the food and beverage industry to produce juice, syrup, jam, fruit tea, and wine, as well as for dietary supplements. Plant chemistry studies have shown that the fruit of Aronia berries is rich in phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins, anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and their analogues. These berries also produce several novel compounds containing fused flavanol coumarin phenol units with hydroxyl radical scavenging and quinone reductase inducing activity. The main bioactive components of Aronia berries are relatively high, ranging from 10 milligrams to 5500 milligrams per 100 grams of dried fruit, including anthocyanins, anthocyanin-3-O-galactoside, chlorogenic acid, and quercetin. Among them, the content of anthocyanins may exceed 5% of dried fruits. The high concentration of these bioactive compounds not only contributes to the biological effects of Aronia fruit, but also provides the potential for discovering useful therapeutic agents from this plant part.

Antioxidant extracts, components or semi synthetic derivatives of Aronia berries have been fully proved to have potential therapeutic effects on different cancer cells, including human breast cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, glioblastoma, liver cancer, lung cancer and leukemia cells. For example, research has found that the antioxidant activity of Aronia berries is related to total anthocyanins and anthocyanin content, where anthocyanin glycosides can inhibit the proliferation of HeLa human cervical cancer cells and increase the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these cancer cells. In further in vitro experiments, it was found that the phenolic components in Aronia berries have strong antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity against HepG2 human liver cancer cells.