Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae including the cranberry, blueberry, lingonberry or whortleberry, bilberry, and huckleberry. The genus contains about 450 species, which are found mostly in the cooler areas of the Northern Hemisphere, although there are tropical species from as widely separated areas as Madagascar and Hawai'i. The plants prefer heath landscapes, as well as open forests. The name Vaccinium is of obscure derivation, but has nothing to do with cows, despite the similarity in the name to the Latin vacca for a cow.

The fruit develops from an inferior ovary, and is botanically a false berry.

Vaccinium species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on Vaccinium.

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Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400
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Pectin power
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400
(Norwich BioScience Institutes) Scientists from the UK's Institute of Food Research have found a new possible explanation for why people who eat more fruit and vegetables may gain protection against the spread of cancers.They have shown that a fragment released from pectin, found in all fruits and vegetables, binds to and is believed to inhibit galectin 3, a protein that plays a role in all stages of cancer progression.

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