Raspberry Aronia Sweet-tart fruit with many health benefits

The chokeberry Aronia: Tart fruit with high health value

The oregano - better known under the botanical name Aronia - is a plant that stands out because of the many healthy ingredients of its fruits. The small black berries taste sweet to sour and especially tart. Mostly they are offered processed, dried, as juice, jelly or fruit spread.

When talking about "Aronia", it is mostly the black chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa. Their ripe fruits are purple-black, roundish and reminiscent of blueberries, but they are a bit bigger. At the beginning of the growth they are covered by a whitish wax layer. However, this loses over time and the fruits are almost black. The pulp turns intense red with increasing maturity. The fruits are not - as the name might suggest - berries.

Botanically, they are so-called understated pickles, as are apples and pears. Therefore, they have more in common with these two rose plants than with botanically real berries, which they resemble externally. The fruits of the apple berries, however, contain no core casing and only small, light to dark brown seeds. They mature from August to October to about 10 to 30 fruits on the umbels of the robust Aronia shrub.

The apple berries contain many vitamins in addition to secondary plant substances such as anthocyanins. Of this blue-red dye, they even have more than any other fruit. Anthocyanins are among the flavonoids that protect body cells from free radicals and slow down cell oxidation. This can reduce fat deposits in the blood vessels and prevent atherosclerosis. Flavonoids also have an anti-inflammatory effect. In addition to phytochemicals, aronia fruits contain a lot of vitamin C (13.7 mg / 100 g fresh berries).

Also minerals are abundant; especially iron, iodine, calcium, potassium and zinc. In addition, the small fruits still provide sugar and small amounts of tannins, which are also responsible for the harsh taste. Fresh aronia berries should not be eaten in large quantities as the seeds are acidic.

Aronia berries can also be frozen. Thawed they are less harsh. If you like it even milder, use the aronia berries to juice, jam, fruit sauces or syrup. Dried aronia fruits taste like raisins and are good for baking and cooking. Due to the high dye content, for example, the use of aronia ester - which is produced in the production of juice - as a natural dye in other food products.

By the way: The Aronia berry is originally from the Northeastern United States. From there she came via Russia in the 1950s to Central Europe. Meanwhile, aronia are increasingly grown in Germany, especially in Saxony and Brandenburg, but also in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. There is also the apple-berry from local cultivation - just ask the fruit farmers from the region. Heike Stommel, bzfe