No Comments Written by on August 18, 2008 – 11:00 pm

Acai berry research is ongoing and robust. Acai berries are a fruit used in many health formulas and nutritional drinks. Growing in clusters on the Acai Palm Tree in various parts of Central and South America, the Acai berry is referred to as the “Milk of the Amazon” by many Brazilian inhabitants who can survive and maintain a very active lifestyle using the berry as their sole source of food. Referred to as the “most nutritious and powerful fruit in the world,” scientists praise the proteins, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats the berry contains.

Acai berry research has shown the acai berry is a dark purple, almost black fruit similar to that of a grape but with much less pulp due to the sizeable seed it contains. The seed itself takes up nearly 80% of the entire berry, but doesn’t have to go to waste. The seeds can be ground up to be used in organic soil for plants or as food for livestock. Each fruit cluster contains roughly 700 to 900 berries harvestable two times per year.

The fruit itself goes bad very quickly after harvest if not extracted into another form. The diet of the natives in the area, namely the Amazon region of Brazil, in which the acai palms flourish, has shown the berry to comprise up to 42% of the total food intake by weight. With it being a vital part of their diet, the berries must be extracted so that they don’t deteriorate faster than they can be distributed. The most popular extraction method is freeze-drying the berry, a process which retains the most nutrients. Another way to prolong the life of the harvested berry is to dry the berry out, but this method loses a great deal of the nutrients due to the berry no longer containing the nutrient rich liquids.

Developed by the scientists at the National Institute of Health in Baltimore, Maryland, the ORAC, or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, is a method of measurement to test the antioxidant capacity of foods. The acai fruit was given the highest ORAC score of any fruit or vegetable tested thus far, containing over 10 times the antioxidant power of cranberries. That makes the acai berry currently the best consumable antioxidant containing fruit.

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