May01

Camu camu - the jewel of the rainforest

Camu camu is undoubtedly the rising star of the world of super fruits. About the size of a cherry, with a smooth skin and rich red colour it certainly looks every bit the jewel that it is. Like many super fruits, it comes from the rainforest regions of our planet. Grown in Peru; it's one of the most nutrient-dense foods and offers considerable anti-aging and disease-prevention benefits. 
 
This little gem of the jungle has an unusually high vitamin C content, higher than any food on the planet, and as a plant second only to the Australian native tree Terminalia Fredinandiana. Popular in its powder form as a food supplement it is also used as a natural oil in cutting edge skin care products.
How high a concentration you ask? Well, oranges are generally known for their high vitamin C content. However, oranges often only have around 1,000 ppm of vitamin C given the way they are commercially grown today. The camu camu berry can have concentrations as high as 50,000 ppm. That means that the camu camu berry provides 50 times more vitamin C than an orange (on an ounce-for-ounce basis). Camu camu is a storehouse of vitamin C and other minerals such as calcium, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, phosphorous, iron and beta carotene.  
The trees grow in the swampy areas of Peru and are possibly the most nutrient rich in the world. It can take up to eight years for them to be mature enough to bear fruit. Each year, this region floods bringing nutrients and minerals to the soil which are taken up by the plants and into the fruit. This ensures the highest quality of the natural components of the fruit (vit C) which are then made available to us in the form of nutritional supplements or super food skin care formulations.
  
Fortunately Camu camu can be sourced and harvested in a way that does not damage the fragile social and environmental balance in the Amazon. Relying on local people to mostly hand harvest berries direct from the ecosystem, helping allow the biodiversity of the region to remain intact.
Wild harvest is the most valued way to source, providing a number of benefits: the surrounding eco-system remains intact allowing full support and strength of the plants to produce their optimum fruit, other habitat and species to flourish, the climate to self regulate, and a continued source of income for the local communities.
Purely from a skin care perspective camu camu is an excellent naturally occurring, high concentration source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is known for boosting collagen production - helping to restore skin elasticity, creating firmness and reducing wrinkles and pore size. It is also valuable to hair to; protect, strengthen, add incredible shine and vitality, and untangle.
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