Kakadu Plum – An Emerging Super-food

Abstract

The term “super-food” is an increasingly, and often over used name for foods with high nutritional and phytochemical content. Such foods are thought to provide exceptional health benefits. One often cited super-food is blueberries with their high antioxidant content, consisting of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), anthrocyanins, flavonoids etc. Recent Australian studies have shown several Australian native fruits to have far greater antioxidant content than blueberries (Netzel et al, 2007). Davidsons plum, Burdekin plum, Illawarra plum, finger limes, Tasmanian pepper, muntries, Molucca raspberry, riberry, bush cherry and Cedar Bay cherry all had antioxidant contents far in excess of blueberries. However, the highest antioxidant content of all was found in Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu plum), which had vitamin C contents approximately 900 times higher than blueberries. Vitamin C contents for Kakadu plum have been estimated to be as high as 6% of wet weight (compared to 0.007% of the wet weight of oranges, which are considered an excellent source of vitamin C) (Woods, 1995). As well as vitamin C, Kakadu plum also contains many other chemical constituents which contribute to their high antioxidant activity (Netzel et al, 2007). Whilst many of these constituents are yet to be identified, Kakadu plum fruit have been shown to contain flavonoids, phenolics and are a good source of gallic and ellagic acids. Furthermore, Kakadu plum is a good source of the minerals magnesium, zinc, calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, phosphorous, manganese, copper and molybdenum (Konczak et al, 2010).