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Effect of Cranberries on Urinary Acidity and Blood Alkali Reserve

(From Massachusetts State College, Amherst)

When cranberries were fed in amounts of 100–300 grams daily to normal young men the following observations were made as to the composition of the urine:

1. The titratable acidity, organic acids, hippuric acid, hydrogen ion concentration, and ammonia were increased, while uric acid and urea nitrogen were slightly decreased.

2. The amount of hippuric acid recovered in the urine was roughly proportional to the weight of cranberries eaten.

3. The hippuric acid was largely voided over a 24 hour period following the ingestion of cranberries.

4. The origin of most of the hippuric acid in the urine is presumably quinic acid or a glucoside which produces quinic acid upon hydrolysis. The cranberries used contained only 0.05 to 0.09 per cent benzoic acid, an amount totally inadequate to account for the large amounts of hippuric acid recovered in the urine.

5. By measurement of the hippuric acid content of the urine and the benzoic acid content of the cranberries ingested, the conclusion is reached indirectly that cranberries contain from 0.5 to 0.9 per cent quinic acid in free or combined form.

6. Two to five ounces of cranberry sauce equivalent to from 22 to 54 grams of fresh cranberries produced only very slight increases in urinary acidity. These quantities of cranberry sauce probably represent average servings.

7. The decrease in urea nitrogen in the urine is probably due to the additional quantities of glycine required for the conjugation of the benzoic acid in the body. The glycine may make use of nitrogen which would otherwise be voided in the urine as urea.

8. Large quantities of cranberries decrease the carbon dioxide combining capacity of the blood, the decrease being in general proportional to the quantity of berries eaten. The usual decrease after eating 100–300 grams of cranberries was 30 to 60 per cent and produced a mild to moderate acidosis.

9. When normal quantities of cranberries were eaten, no decrease in blood alkali reserve was found. Thus two to five ounces of cranberry sauce, equivalent to 22 to 54 grams of fresh cranberries, produced no demonstrable decrease in blood alkali reserve.