Terminalia ferdinandiana

Bush plum

The bush plum ( Terminalia ferdinandiana ) is a plant from the family of wing seed plants ( Combretaceae ). It is spread through the tropical forest areas of northwest Australia in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to the east of Arnhem Land. The fruits are plum also Gubinge, in English Billygoat, Billygoat Plum, Kakadu and called in the language of the aborigines Murunga. The fruits have the highest concentration of vitamin C of all plant species studied so far; the content is with 2300-3150 mg per 100 g of flesh about 50 times higher than oranges.

Description

Terminalia ferdinandiana grows as a deciduous, slender, small to medium sized tree, reaching heights of growth of usually up to 14 meters; there are also individual trees that reach heights of growth of up to 30 meters. The bark is fissured, medium gray to cream-colored and orange. Those with a length of up to 25 centimeters and a width of 15 centimeters very large, pale green leaves are spirally arranged at the ends of the branches and are shed in the dry season from July to August.

Page Constantly at the ends of the branches inflorescences are formed. The small flowers are creamy white and fragrant. The flowering period extends from September to December in the southern hemisphere from spring to summer.

The olive color when ripe from March to October to yellow- green colored, fleshy fruit with a length of about 2 cm and a diameter of about 1 cm in size and almond -shaped with a short beak at their peak. In the flesh sits only one hard, woody seed. The fruit pulp is edible and contains a very high content of vitamin C, the Aborigines eat it raw, but it has a desiccating, not very pleasant effect in the mouth.

Use

The fruit, which is known in Australia as Kakadu plums, belongs to the so-called Bush food and was eaten by the Aborigines for tens of thousands of years. The small oval fruits were eaten by them usually raw. Interestingly, this fruit was again popular with the Aborigines after the high vitamin C content was known. Today, the fruits are collected by the Aborigines again.

Is used the fruit for jams and sauces for restaurants, hotels and airplanes for food lovers. It is also used for fruit juices, ice creams, cosmetics, flavoring and pharmaceutical products.

The bush plum has a high vitamin C content, which should be the highest in the world. He is up to 5 percent of the weight of the fruit, so that it contains 50 times more vitamin C than oranges. This is significantly more than the South American plant camu camu, which also has a high vitamin C content. In a first investigation by Vic Cherikoff at the University of Sydney vitamin C contents were determined by 3.2 percent, after fruits were found that had more than 5 percent. In addition to that in the bush plum, a high proportion was measured folic acid, further investigation found a remarkable high proportion of polyphenolic antioxidants.

Today, the bush plum is often used as an ingredient for cosmetics, but slowly, a market developed for medical food ( nutraceutical ) and fortified beverages. Since the trees are tentatively grown and harvested in plantations irrigated fields and the fruits are delivered to distant markets, the vitamin C content with the difficult growing conditions may fall, which also has to do with the scattered trees. The Aboriginal communities are beneficiaries of the growing demand for this fruit that grows on the northern tip of Australia. However, the high prices paid for the fruit, would ensure that participate more illegal pickers to harvest.

Taxonomy

The first publication of this kind was carried out under the name of Terminalia edulis F.Muell. 1861 invalid because it already Terminalia edulis Blanco, Flora de Filipinas in 1845, S. 265, announced by Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, Volume 2 (16 ), pp. 151 The valid name Terminalia ferdinandiana 1935 published by Arthur Wallis Exell in Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 73, p 263. Other synonyms for Terminalia Terminalia latipes ferdinandiana Exell are subsp. psilocarpa Pedley, myrobalans Kuntze edulis, Terminalia prostrata Pedley.