Move over blueberries — furious B.C. plant produces contender for world’s healthiest berry

Move over, blueberries.

A new University of Victoria investigate suggests the small fruit of a furious plant that grows extravagantly in B.C. is a contender for a healthiest berry on a planet.

UVic biologist Peter Constabel’s research found that berries of the salal plant beat blueberries hands-down for two key compounds compared with health benefits.

The investigate is published this month in the international biography of plant chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology, Pytochemistry.

“It was a bit of a coincidence,” Constabel said. 

He had already completed a investigate of blueberry compounds, and he was informed with a salal plant (Latin name Gaultheria shallon).

But until someone gave him a bottle of dessert booze containing salal extract, he said, “I wasn’t even wakeful that we could eat a berries.” 

Constabel later learned salal berries are a normal food of Indigenous peoples on a West Coast.

“I thought, well, salal is famous to have a lot of tannins in a leaves and so we suspicion a fruit would have high levels of antioxidants and tannins formed on what we had read,” Constabel said.

“We did some experiments and certain adequate they had really, unequivocally high levels.” 

Higher antioxidant, tannin levels

The salal berries contain high levels of tannins, a devalue in many fruits and whole foods linked to better health.

“They’re about 5 times aloft than blueberry, that is deliberate one of a primary sustaining berries,” he said.

“A diet high in tannins is related to reduced risk in cardiovascular disease, heart disease, strokes; to reduced risk of neurodegenerative disease, and also to a reduced risk of what’s called metabolic syndrome (such as) form 2 diabetes, those kinds of issues,” 

Extracts done from salal berries also showed levels of antioxidants three to 4 times aloft than blueberries.

“Both of those things together done me comprehend that hey, these are really engaging berries,” he said.

Flavour between blueberry and red currant

“I would have to contend they’re not utterly as luscious as blueberries though they’re close,” he said.

“You get a good patch. they’re juicy, they’re sweet, they ambience a small bit like a cranky between a blueberry and a red currant. though a bit mealier, a bit some-more texture.”

With files from CBC Radio One’s On a Island with Gregor Craigie.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/blueberries-superfoods-salal-berries-uvic-antioxidants-tannins-1.4565091?cmp=rss