SHORT REPORT Open Access t

Respiratory diseases including pneumonia, tuberculosis, asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema and chronic obstruct-ive pulmonary disease are associated with oxidative and inflammatory processes generated by microorganisms, air pollutants or tobacco smoke. Epidemiological studies sug-gest that a high intake of fruits and vegetables exerts health-promoting effects on lung injury and function [1], probably due to the abundance of vitamins and polyphenols with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or mitochondrial regulatory properties in these foodstuffs [2]. This is also supported by the fact that deficiencies in antioxidant vita-mins are frequently described in patients suffering respira-tory diseases while intervention studies indicate that vitamin supplementation might improve their health state [3,4]. On the other hand, flavonoid-rich diets are nega-tively associated with chronic cough and it has been shown that apple intake, as well as that of red wine, de-creases the risk of asthma [5,6]. Though experimental studies indicate that polyphenol administration improves * Correspondence