Table 4.

Summarization of the evidence of European cranberry biological activities.

Effect	Studied Models	Mechanism of Action	References
Antibacterial and antifungal activities	agar well diffusion method; human epithelial cells	antiadhesion activity (blocking bacterial adhesion) against Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus pneumoniae	Toivanen et al. [76], Toivanen et al. [77]
	in vitro studies (minced pork meat)	inhibition of the growth of Escherichia coli, Salmonella Enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus	Stobnicka and Gniewosz [11]
	agar well diffusion method	inhibitory effect on hemagglutination of E. coli; the growth inhibition of Salmonella typhimurium, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus subtilis	Česonienė et al. [27], Kylli et al. [36]
	in vitro studies (sugar reduced fruit spreads)	inhibition of growth of Absidia glauca, Penicillium brevicompactum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zygosaccharomyces bailii	Ermis et al. [45]
	diffusion methods; human bronchial cells (Calu-3)	Antibacterial inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli,; blocking bacterial adhesion against pneumococcal binding of Streptococcus pneumoniae	Rauha et al. [10], Huttunen et al. [81]
Prevention of urinary tract infections (UTI)	in vitro studies	effect of type-A proanthocyanidins; inhibition of the adherence of E. coli to uroepithelial cells	Davidson et al. [89], Shamseer and Vohra [90]
	women participants; meta-analyses; in vitro studies,	prevention of UTI, blocking of fimbrial adhesion of causative bacterium E. coli to colonise the uroepithelial cells	Kontiokari et al. [91], Kontiokari et al. [92], Jepson et al. [93], Jepson and Craig [94], Jepson et al. [95], Liska et al. [96], Ranfaing et al. [85]
Cardioprotective effect	in vitro model, rats fed with juice	vascular anti–inflammatory properties, inhibition of LPS (Lipopolysaccharide-) induced NO (nitric oxide) production, inhibition LPS-induced IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α production	Kylli et al. [36], Kivimäki et al. [26]
	Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) model	normalization of the impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation of mesenteric arteries, activity of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor	Kivimäki et al. [97]
Anticancer activity	in vitro model (human oral, breast, colon tumor cells)	inhibition of stages of carcinogenesis, stimulation of the apoptosis of cancer cells	Seeram et al. [98], Masoudi and Saiedi [84]
	human prostate cancer cells	inhibition of specific temporal NMP (1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) regulators	Seeram et al. [98]