From a USDA News Release

Plump, juicy Bing cherries, eaten fresh, may help people who suffer from the pain of gout or other forms of arthritic inflammation.

That's according to results from a study with 10 healthy women, aged 22 to 40, who ate a special breakfast of 45 fresh, pitted Bing cherries. Scientists at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Davis, Calif., and university colleagues conducted the investigation.

The experiment was among the first to track anti-inflammatory effects of fresh Bing cherries in a carefully controlled test with healthy volunteers.

Levels of uric acid--a compound the body uses to form painful urate crystals duringout attack--decreased significantly in volunteers' blood (plasma) over the 5 hourafter they ate the Bing-cherry breakfast. And, levels of urate removed from their bodies in urine increased over those 5 hours.

The decrease in two key markers, or indicators, of inflammation--nitric oxide and C reactive protein--weren't large enough to be statistically significant. However, this downward trend agreed with that noted earlier in other scientists' test-tube studies of cherry extracts.

Results of a follow-up study should be available later this year. The grower-sponsored California Cherry Advisory Board, Lodi, helped fund the study.

For more information, contact Darshan S. Kelley (530) 752-5138; USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Davis, CA.