Acerola Cherries: Nature's Vitamin C Bomb
/What’s Growing in the Garden….a series exploring what’s growing around me. For a Canadian girl, now living in a subtropical climate, I’m excited to share what I see and learn about the food growing around me.
Acerola Cherries: Nature’s Vitamin C Bomb
What are Acerola cherries?
Acerola cherries (Malpighia emarginata D.C.) are known by many names including the Barbados cherry, West Indian cherry, Guarani cherry, and Antilles cherry. These small red fruits grow on an evergreen shrub and produce fruit all year round (sometimes producing fruit up to 7 times per year).
These tart little fruits, which resemble a small, red apples, originate from the Americas. There are differing accounts to where they actually originate (including the Caribbean, or parts of Central or South America) but, nonetheless, I think it’s safe to say based on the info out there, they are native to somewhere in the tropical or subtropical Americas. They are now also cultivated in other areas of the world, including India.
Growing Acerola
Acerola shrubs are easy to care and grow well in USDA hardiness zones 9b-11 (tropics and subtropics). These shrubs do well in sunny, or partially sunny locations, in well-drained soil. If you have the right conditions for growth, these low maintenance plants can produce a lot of fruit, for little effort, and are certainly worth planting in your garden.
Taste and use
Acerola cherries are tart and juicy with a slight apple-like flavour. As the cherries darken, they become a tad sweet. In Paraguay, they are often called Manzanitas (or “little apples) which is a pretty apt nickname, I think. The cherries contain a three small seeds in their centers, which can either be eaten or spit out, depending on preference (and whether or not you want the extra fiber!).
Once harvested, these cherries don’t last long, so they aren’t typically often sold fresh in supermarkets or exported as a fresh fruit. Acerola cherries can be made into jam and jelly, juice, compotes and used in baked goods to extent their shelf life.
Health Benefits
The Acerola cherry contains small amounts potassium, beta-carotene, magnesium and along with phytonutrients such as carotenoid phenolics, anthocyanins and flavonoids that provide anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
The Acerola cherry’s most impressive nutritional attribute, however, is its vitamin C content. Gram per gram of edible portion of Acerola cherries boasts one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. This ascorbic acid is what gives the fruit their tart taste. These cherries have been found to contain about 50-100 times the average vitamin C content of citrus fruits like oranges and lemons.
One ½ cup serving of whole Acerola cherries (about 20-25 cherries) has about 400 mg of vitamin C. To put that into context, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin C is 90mg and 75mg, for men and women respectively. With this fruit in your diet, it would not be hard to get the vitamin C your body needs to make collagen, heal wounds, combat free radical cell damage, and assist the immune system.
