Bush tucker tops for levels of antioxidants
Australian scientists have confirmed what Aborigines have known for millennia - that 'bush tucker' (food from the countryside) not only tastes good, it can combat fatal diseases.
Native fruits have been shown to have five times the level of antioxidants as blueberries, which until now have been regarded as the fruit with the highest antioxidant strength.
Antioxidants are believed to reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other illnesses. They can slow ageing.
Australians are slowly cottoning on to the appeal of bush tucker but the findings will give a vital boost to the fledgling native food industry, currently worth A$14 million (HK$91.63 million) a year.
Scientists found extremely high levels of antioxidants in types of fruit that have been known to Aborigines for millennia but which are barely recognised by white Australians. They include red and yellow finger limes, Tasmanian pepper, brush cherry, muntries and the Moluccan raspberry. Kakadu plums and Burdekin plums contained nearly five times the level of antioxidants of blueberries.
Tests showed that the Kakadu plum, which is found in the Northern Territory and Western Australia state, has the second-highest vitamin C level of any fruit in the world - up to three per cent of its dry weight.
Gathering native fruits need not involve trekking hundreds of kilometres into the outback.
'The riberry grows in parks and gardens in Sydney,' said team leader, Izabela Konczak of Food Science Australia, a government-funded research body. 'And the Burdekin plum is used for revegetation in Queensland.'
It is the first study of antioxidant content in Australian native fruits.
'These are super-fruits,' Dr Konczak said. 'Growing in the wild, they are subjected to drought and harsh conditions, and stress on a plant induces the accumulation of antioxidants.'
