Allergic asthma is an inflammatory lung disease characterized by airway obstruction, bronchospasm, and infiltration of immune cells, such as eosinophils. These cells contribute to mucosal inflammation and are recruited to the site of inflammation by an eosinophil chemotactic protein, also called chemokine CCL11.

Roger D. Hurst, New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd., Palmerston North, and colleagues have investigated the effects of anthocyanin-rich blackcurrant extract as a food supplement on CCL11 production, eosinophil recruitment, and lung morphology in a mouse model. Anthocyanins are glycosides of anthocyanidins, which are aromatic oxygen heterocycles belonging to the class of flavonoids. They are common plant pigments and have colors from red to blue.

The team found that not the individual anthocyanidin compound itself but the ratio of different anthocyanidins within the fruits is of vital significance. Fruit extracts with a high delphinidin to low cyanidin anthocyanin glycoside ratio have the potential to be most effective in alleviating airway inflammation and inflammatory cell recruitment.

• Blackcurrant anthocyanins modulate CCL11 secretion and suppress allergic airway inflammation,
  Odette M. Shaw, Tafadzwa Nyanhanda, Tony K. McGhie, Jacquie L. Harper, Roger D. Hurst,
  Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2017.
  DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201600868