A Sri Lankan-born professor has conducted extensive research on a berry that is likely to be more popular than all the other kinds of berries growing in Canada.
Vasantha Rupasinghe, a professor at Dalhousie University, compared the total anti-oxidant content of haskap berry to blackberry, blueberry, partridge berry, strawberry, raspberry and red table grape.
“We found haskap is by far the top in terms of total anti-oxidants per portion,” he says. “It has two to three times more anti-oxidants than blueberries. It is the better berry,” he told the Canadian daily National Post.
Rupasinghe’s lab works closely with Haskapa, a grower and maker of haskap products — juices, jams, dried and frozen berries — based in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia in Canada.
The haskap berry (Lonicera caerulea) also known as blue honeysuckle is going to be the super food when it is introduced to Canadians, according to research and press reports.
The indigo-coloured berry, said to taste like a cross between blueberries, raspberries and Saskatoon berries, are mostly native to the countries of the Northern Hemisphere.
A hardy, anti-oxidant rich, cold-weather-loving berry — with Russian, Japanese and Canadian roots — has researchers buzzing about its health-boosting potential.
The Japanese refer to haskap as the “fruit of longevity.” Farmers refer to it as a berry gold mine waiting to be developed, a cash crop that could catapult the haskap to the top of the Canadian berry heap, alongside the almighty blueberry, said National Post sometime ago.
The fruit is not quite well known among the Canadians. It has been around for decades as an ornamental bush as well as existing in the Canadian wilds.
Haskap can withstand temperatures of -47 Celsius, exposure to high latitude UV rays and thrives in soggy, oxygen-deprived soils. It is extremely healthy for humans because it is particularly high in cancer fighting anti-oxidants. According to Canadian CTV television, Ginette Filion, a member of a family growing haskap in a nursery in Sudbury in northern Ontario, said they are planning to sell their haskap berries for the first time in two Sudbury-area stores adding that ‘with the economy and farming of the berry, it is time to diversify into something else.’ Despite the fruit’s popularity in Europe and Asia, they’re still relatively unknown in Canada.
The family also plans to produce products like salad dressings and barbecue sauces. The picking season is only two to three weeks long, Filion said.
An author of many publications and engaged in speaking at many prestigious scientific gatherings in the world, Prof. Rupasinghe works at the Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia on eastern Canada. He had earlier served in Iowa State University, USA and presently serves as Canada Research Chair in Fruit Bioactives and Bioproducts.
On July 1, 2016 he was one of the three outstanding researchers appointed to Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Chairs at Dalhousie University.
