An Indigenous fruit which is one of the earliest known plant foods eaten in Australia could be the next big thing in the bush foods industry.
The University of Queensland research team is led by bush foods researcher Associate Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa, who said the green plum not only tasted delicious but contained one of the highest known folate levels of any fruit on the commercial market.
“This is really exciting because folate is an important B-group vitamin, and what’s great about the green plum is that the folate is in a natural form so the body absorbs it more easily than in a capsule,” Dr Sultanbawa said.
The UQ team, which includes Dr Heather Smyth, Dr Michael Netzel and Dr Horst Schirra, is working with researchers in Germany to uncover the green plum’s chemistry, and its acids and sugars, to provide a more detailed nutritional profile of the fruit.
