Need to lower your blood pressure, avoid blood clots and the possibility of stroke? Watermelon juice

Friday, April 6, 2007

Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie is a research scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, located at the South Central Agricultural Research Center in Lane, Oklahoma.

Perkins-Veazie has authored or co-authored more than 100 research papers and is an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Maine. She is the current president of the southern region of the American Society of Horticultural Science and is a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Perkins-Veazie does post-harvest storage and phytonutrient research on small fruits and vegetables, primarily in blackberries, blueberries and watermelon, but is familiar with the post-harvest life of fruits and vegetables from A to Z (apples to zucchini). Over the last eight years, Perkins-Veazie has worked on the phytonutrients in watermelon, including lycopene (red pigment) and amino acids such as citrulline and arginine, all of which may play a role in cardiovascular protection.