Aronia melanocarpa L., black chokeberry
[Follow the Wikipedia links]
We are introducing rare berries likely not well known to most
readers of the Berry Doctor's Journal.
Part 1 was on Myrica rubra L., the yumberry (bayberry), click!
The era of superfruits we now find discussed so much
in the news has suddenly made popular the once-shunned chokeberry,
Aronia from its botanical name. See this 2008 industry report, click
Why is aronia now popular?
-
-
-
novel taste (sharp, sour, fruity)
-
growing medical literature establishing potential health benefits
But could an aronia product exist on its own?
Probably not.
The chokeberry comes by its common name honestly,
for anyone who tastes this fruit's intense acidity and sourness
is induced into instant puckering and choking reflexes.
The high acidity of aronia is called astringency, the dry, pucker-producing mouthfeel caused by high content of phenolic acids, particularly tannins found in the skins and seeds of many berries and other color-rich fruits.
Phenolics can denature salivary proteins, causing a rough "sandpapery" sensation in the mouth. Astringency tastes unpleasant to many mammals (including humans) who avoid eating astringent fruit.
By contrast, birds do not sense astringency and readily eat aronia.
Aronia astringency may give it a selective advantage to other berries and small fruits because birds are better than mammals at long-distance seed dispersal, often flying some distance before passing seeds in their droppings, i.e., seeding new aronia plants distant from the parent -- the regeneration goal of Nature.
How is aronia being used in new food and beverage products?
- preferred as a sweetened juice in Europe
- juice blends (with grape or cranberry) in the US and Canada
- syrup and jam
- teas
- flavorings with a touch of sourness for sorbets, yogurts
- colorants, taking advantage of the high anthocyanin (pigment) content
- extracts of phenolics for encapsulated nutraceuticals
What does medical research on aronia say
about its health properties?
The exceptional phenolic content, especially of anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins (click for abstract) and tannins,
focuses attention on how these aronia antioxidants
may have anti-disease effects,
such as (click for the abstract):
In patients
In experimental animals
These same effects could be demonstrated with other berries, but the concentrations of phenolics are higher and easier to show when using a high-content source like aronia.
General rule of thumb: anti-disease properties shown in laboratory experiments are proportional to the concentration of berry phenolics which is proportional to overall antioxidant strength (ORAC).
