Cranberries’ Reputation as Infection Fighter Is Hard to Confirm - NYTimes.com

Cranberries’ Reputation as Infection Fighter Is Hard to Confirm - NYTimes.com:

"Now a large, impeccably designed and executed study of cranberry juice has found that the presumed active compound apparently has no effect. And yet the newest study closed no doors. It may simply mean that the juice works, but by an unknown mechanism.

How can one little berry be so difficult to pin down?

For one thing, the cranberry contains more than 200 active substances in addition to vitamin C, citric acid and an array of other acids.... More to the point, urine from both mice and people who drank modest amounts of cranberry juice also prevented bacterial adherence."