Worldly Blueberry Traditions

One of my jobs is to manage and maintain the Blueberry Health Research Database.  I receive hundreds of citations and abstracts on new blueberry research which is compiled by Dr. Ron Prior Ph.D.  in Arkansas. (Ron has been a pioneer in the blueberry antioxidant area and a great friend of the blueberry indusry). 

I am noticing more and more blueberry research conducted outside of North America where our blueberries originated.  Historically, the Eastern Europeans lunched the first wave of blueberry research back in the 1980s and before.  A good friend of mine, (George L.) was a fellow at the Russian (Soviet) Academy of Science and specialized in research on natural substances such as berries, garlic, and forest herbs.  Russian research focused on disease prevention, eyesight, liver and anti-radiation diets.  George L. and many of his colleagues from Russia, Serbia, Bosnia immigrated to Israel and the West in the 90s.  They became a catalyst in a wave of blueberry-health-related research that we see today. Some work in the nutraceutical business as we call it now.  Check out the USHBC blueberry health database and marvel at some of the pioneering work being conducted all over the world.

<Caption: "Kalifornia"Nutraceutical beverage combines kale juice, and  blueberries.  Although this is a UA product, it is typical of what you will fine in the typical Apoteke in Russia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Serbia.>