The deep purple Acai Berries are full of up to 33 times the antioxidant substance of red wine grapes. These astounding berries have conventionally been used to boost levels of stamina, energy, strength, and improve overall health.
Acai Palm:
General Names: Acai Palm, Assai Palm, Cabbage Palm
Synonyms: Euterpe badiocarpa
Allied species: Eturpe edulis
Conservation Status: Not threatened
Distribution & Home: The Acai Palm is widely distributed and is very widespread throughout northern South America. The natural habit of the Acai Palm tends to be along river banks and seasonal flood plains and is typically found along water courses of Brazil. Acai Palm is also cultivated widely in the vast Amazon River estuary. The Acai Berry Fruit is a widely distributed, productive palm and very widely grown because of the properties of the Acai fruit and the use of the heart of the palm for as a nail food in Brazil.
Background Details: The Acai Palm belongs to ancestors of over 1200 species comprising 32 different generic groups and is widely regarded as one of the most helpful plant families in the world. Palm trees have provided a variety of food and products used by man for eons. These uses include food, clothing, oil for cooking, drinks, clothing, weapons, building materials, and containers.
The Acai berry is a really common, slim, yet very tall palm and grows 15 to 25 m in height. Most grown-up Acai palm trees in the wild develop 4-8 stems from a single seed and root system. It isn’t unusual for the Acai palm to grow up to 25 or more shoots all growing as individual Acai palms. Acai palm has tailored well to live and flourish in seasonally flooded areas in soils often drenched for months. The Acai Palm turns out quite small male and female flowers of a brown to purple color.
The Acai Palm produces a highly nourishing edible berry which grows in opaque clusters typical of many palms. The Acai berry fruit is round and 1-2 cm in diameter, has an oily covering over a fibrous sheath covering a single huge seed. The Acai fruit ripens from a green color to a dark rich purple. Each Acai stem usually produces four to eight bunches of the Acai fruit throughout the year making it one of the most productive fruiting palms in the forest. The clusters of the ripe Acai fruits are heaviest in the dry season (July to December) with individual bunches weighing up to 6 kg. One Acai palm stem generally yields an average of 24 kgs plus of Acai fruit per year. The Acai Berry Fruit is a darling of rain forest animals and is actively sought out by birds and rodents. Acai berry seeds disbursement from their droppings ensures frequent breeding of the species. Found throughout the Amazon, Acai berry is very common in the Brazilian state of Pará. The Acai palm is possibly the most ordinary palm found throughout the plain flood areas of northern South America.
Commercial Mistreatment: Palm Hearts: Acai and other Euterpe palm trees are the focus of commercial mistreatment in South America. Palm hearts, eaten globally as a vegetable, are obtained by cutting the palm and removing the crown shaft, in which the heart is found. Acai berry Palm hearts are the tender, whitish young leaves of the palm leaf just above the growing point on each stem. Although it has almost no nutritious value, palm hearts have been a staple food enjoyed by the home populations for generations and have also become a monetary resource and export product for many rainforest countries. France, followed by the U.S. is the largest importers of palm hearts. There are more than 120 registered palm heart processors operating in the Amazon, with a large number of smaller unregistered family operations selling their harvests to the bigger facilities with onsite canning operations. Formerly, much of the commercial palm heart production in South America beginning in the 1960’s came from a different palm tree, Euterpe edulis, which only produces a single trunk. Because the tree must be knocked down to take out the palm heart, palm heart misuse without any adequate management severely destroyed the natural populations of this species at an alarming rate. Reference: http://www.rain-tree.com/acai.htm
After many inhabitants E. edulis palm woods disappeared, harvesters began using the Acai palm as a more sustainable substitute since it produces many stems/trunks. Unlike its cousin, when one of the Acai’s stems is cut, more stems will produce back on the same root system and the cutting of some of the stems heartens fruiting on the remaining stems. Acai palm is now the world’s main source of palm hearts. While Acai palm does offer a more sustainable alternative, it does not guarantee that the correct exploitative harvesting methods will be used to promise the plant’s continued existence. Huge stands of Acai palm are often over-exploited and sometimes complete groves are clear-felled for palm heart exploitation. At present, there is a scarcity of raw materials in many sites in the Amazon River estuary due to over-harvesting and a lack of sustainable administration of native stands; palm heart processing plants in the region generally operate only 2-3 days per week. Ref: http://www.rain-tree.com/acai.htm
Most botanists agree that palm heart harvesting of any palm species is possibly an unsustainable practice due to the damage done and the trees wasted in the process. The Acai palm’s future does look glowing however, due to the speedily growing money-making export market for the Acai fruit. Profits collected from sustainable harvesting of the Acai fruit are quickly surpassing the profits from weak harvesting of the palm heart.
Acai Berry: In Brazilian herbal medication system, the oil of the Acai berry fruit is used to treat diarrhea; a blend of the grated fruit rind is used as a topical wash for skin ulcers; and, the Acai fruit seeds are crushed and prepared in an infusion for fevers. In the Peruvian Amazon, an infusion of the toasted mashed seeds is used for fever. In Colombia, where the Acai berry trees grow along the Pacific coast line, it is called naidí and the fruit is turned into a common and popular drink.
Acai Berry Juice: Easily the most ordinary use of the Acai fruit by Amazonians is the deep purple Acai Berry Juice. The Acai juice is extracted from the small round fruit by soaking the seeds in water to soften the thin external shell and then squeezing and straining them to manufacture a very tasty, dense purple liquid. This Acai liquid is served fresh and ice cold with sugar and tapioca flour. It is a wholesome and energizing drink that is also used to produce ice cream, liquor, mousses and sweets in general. Consumption of up to 2 liters per day of this highly nutritious juice has been traced amongst indigenous populations. The Acai juice has been and remains, a very important part of northern native South American diets and has become very popular throughout all socio economic levels.
Acai Berry Benefits: What is famous about the Acai berry fruit health benefits, backed by scientific study into the fruits properties, is quite significant. Acai is a rich source of anthocyanins and other phenolics and Phyto-nutrients. The Acai berries are amongst the most nourishing foods of the Amazon, rich in B vitamins, minerals, and fiber, protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Acai also contain oleic acid (omega-9), a beneficial fatty acid (often incorrectly referred to as essential).
Acai Berry Minerals: Potassium is the mineral most plentiful in the Acai berries, but it is also rich in copper, and strangely high in manganese. Only a small fraction supplies far more than the body needs of this ultra-trace mineral.
Acai Berry Phytonutrients: Anthocyanins are elements that have powerful antioxidant activity, allowing for the deactivation of the potentially harmful free radicals. The famous study regarding the “French Paradox” attributes anthocyanins as being the antioxidant that defends the French from heart ailment. The French are known to consume large amounts of coffee, nicotine, sugar, white flour and cheese and yet they have a very low rate of heart disease compared to bordering countries like the UK and Denmark. The red wine grape, due to its anthocyanins is what is supposed to be responsible for the very low occurrence of heart disease. While red wine has good quantities of anthocyanins, the Acai berry has been show to hold up to 30 times the anthocyanins levels of red wine.
By neutralizing these free radicals, anthocyanins from the Acai berry may really serve to maintain the healthy function of numerous systems and organs. Some of the anthocyanins that have been found in the Acai berry include cyanidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-glucoside-coumarate. Other phenolics include catechins and epi-catechin (the same compounds in green tea), quercetin derivatives and other flavonoids. It is likely that the mutual effects of these compounds, as present in the Acai fruit are accountable for its powerful antioxidant activities.
Acai Berry ORAC Score: The Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity (ORAC) assess measures the total antioxidant activity of a biological sample. It’s a check developed for the USDA by scientists at Tufts University to calculate the antioxidant speed and power of foods and supplements. The ORAC scale is used in human, agricultural, food and pharmaceutical products, plus food ingredients and is quickly becoming the established standard for comparing antioxidant potential in foods and supplements.
Acai Berry Antioxidants Benefits: For a normal person to deal with all the reactive oxygen species they will meet, foods and drinks totaling an ORAC value of about 1,670 per day are required. It’s been projected that 80-90 percent of the world’s population fails to have even half of this level. At 3,800 ORAC value per gram, Acai berry is reputed to be tremendously high on the ORAC scale and provides levels multiple times that of other anthocyanin-rich fruits and vegetables, such as cherries, cranberries and mulberries.
Acai Berry for Aging Population: As the population becomes old, 80% of older people in Western countries will grow at least one chronic metabolic disease. If the USDA says that high-ORAC foods may delay aging and prevent metabolic disease from occurring, isn’t it about time you improve the amount of high ORAC foods in your diet to prevent this process from occurring in the first place? So don’t wait and go for the Acai Berry!
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