Camu Camu

Camu Camu is the reddish-purple berry of an Amazonian rainforest tree, and is currently being hailed as the richest source of natural vitamin C on the planet. It backs up this vital nutrient with a small arsenal of phytochemicals, which help make it a richly stabilising addition to the human diet. Camu Camu is currently hailed as one of the most important new arrivals on the superfood scene, and is gaining fans rapidly around the world.

The bushy tree Myrciaria dubia grows along water courses in the Amazon region. It is versatile enough to survive in other sub-tropical areas, and is now beginning to be cultivated elsewhere. Although its berries are reddish-purple its flesh is yellow, and it is this part of the fruit that is prized for its nutritional virtues. Even raw, Camu Camu tends to be used as an additive to other foods rather than a destination fruit. It is fairly acidic, and as a result tastes rather bitter. People in its native area tend to use it as an addition to drinks, preserves and ice cream.

Health benefits of Camu Camu

Camu Camu has only recently emerged as a nutritional superstar, and is currently the subject of much research into its properties as a food. A unifying conclusion of early studies is that the fruit has enormous potential, due to the combination of bio-available vitamin C and supporting phyto-nutrients that it offers. Vitamin C is one of the human diet’s absolute essentials. We need it to build and maintain healthy skin, nerves, muscles and bone. Since experiments in the 18th Century into the causes of the ascorbate (vitamin C) deficiency scurvy, it has been an accepted fact of human nutrition that we must include it in our diets.

Vitamin C is available in fresh fruit and vegetables, but modern man rarely consumes enough to provide sufficiency. Vitamin C supplements are commonplace, mostly containing a synthesised product. While these are useful, it is far better to consume a more natural product, containing supporting phytonutrients which support and nourish the body’s systems and help make the vitamin C more efficiently absorbed. In Camu Camu, these include the essential amino acids valine and leucine, antioxidant anthogens and and ellagic acid, health-promoting flavanols, blood sugar-stabilising myrtillin and antifungal gallic acid.

Although scientific research is only beginning to bear them out, proponents of Camu Camu have already hailed it as an effective antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and antiviral. It is recognised as a stabiliser of the human system, helping our bodies’ own defence systems optimise their resistance to disease and promoting accelerated healing.