PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Why wild African fruits can supplement low protein staple foods

2021-07-07
(Press-News.org) In the line-up of wild African fruits, the marula is the best known. For thousands of years, people have depended on the trees for food, medicines, and more. It is also exported globally as the rockstar ingredient of a cream liqueur. The fruit is a success story far beyond the savannas and bushveld where the trees grow.

But there is a whole choir of other wild, indigenous fruits in Southern Africa. And some exceed daily nutritional values recommended by the WHO and others.

Research from the University of Johannesburg uncovers a variety of building blocks for protein in the fruit of 14 species. Several are analyzed for the first time for nutritional value.

The study published in Plants uncovers the essential amino acids in the fruits. These nutrients are essential for healthy development in children, and to maintain health in adults.

One is a very good candidate to boost immune function against viruses, because it contains so much lysine.

"The majority of these are considered essential amino acids because they cannot be made by the human body. We humans need to eat them, so they need to be included in our diets.

"We can improve the nutrition quality of our diets with wild fruit," says Prof Annah Moteetee. She is from the University of Johannesburg and lead author of the study.

"We can eat the fruits by themselves, or use them together with other foods," she adds.

The amino acid supplement: The White olive

The fruit of the white olive grow directly out of the tree bark. The unusual berries pack an essential amino acid punch, this first analysis of the nutritional value reveals. Its scientific name is Halleria lucida.

The sweet, soft fruit is delicious to birds and humans, so humans make sure they get to the trees before the birds do, adds Moteetee. But it was more complicated than just getting to the fruit first. A very specific ripening process is crucial to make the berries edible.

"I grew up in Lesotho eating these fruits," she says. "As kids, we would collect them while they are green and unripe. Because by the time they are ripe, the competition with birds and other people is stiff. We would dig a hole in the ground, line it with big leaves, and put the fruit in there," she says.

"So you harvest as much as you can, while you can. You would mark the spot so you could find it the next time. We really enjoyed these fruits as kids. It is one of the reasons I decided to include this fruit in the study. Some researchers say it dries your mouth, but I don't remember that."

The berries look plain but contain several of the essential amino acids recommended by the WHO.

Of all the wild fruits in the study, the white olive had the highest quantities of histidine at 1.56 mg/100 g. Histidine is an essential amino acid for infants.

Of all the species studied, Halleria lucida also had the highest amounts of isoleucine (0.30 g/100 mg), leucine (0.47 g/100 g), phenyalanine (0.31 g/100 g), and valine (0.39 g/100 g). In all instances, the amounts exceed the WHO recommended daily intakes (RDAs).

The analysis showed that the fruit contain protein at 6.98 mg/100g and carbohydrates at 36.98 mg/100 g.

However, the white olive fruit is more suited as a general supplement of essential amino acids, since it contains most of these in lower quantities than the recommended daily intake.

The tree occurs next to rivers in the wild. In South Africa it is also planted in suburban gardens for its flowers or trimmed into hedges.

The carbohydrate supplement: The Lowveld milkberry

The Lowveld Milkberry, or Manilkara mochisia, turned out to be the best source of carbohydrates among the fruits studied, says Moteetee. The fruit is also analyzed for the first time for its nutritional value.

A 100 g portion of the fruit contains 169 kJ of energy. Of that, the proximate value of carbohydrates is 36.98 g per 100g.

However, at best the fruit can be a supplement to a diet, since an average adult would have to eat 5 kg of it every day to meet the RDA value of 2000 kcal.

The immune booster: The jacket plum

The jacket plum's fruit is so packed with lysine, it far exceeds the required daily intake for adults, the researchers found. The jacket plum is also known as Pappea capensis.

Lysine supports healthy growth and development in young children. It is also needed to maintain a healthy immune function, especially against viruses.

Each fruit tested in the study exceeded the WHO RDA for 24 hours in adults, says Moteetee. The highest lysine sampled in the study was 0.77 g per 100 g portion. This is far higher than the required daily intake of 0.0003 g/100 g recommended by the WHO.

Pappea capensis also had the highest quantities of methionine (0.15 g/100 mg) and threonine (0.31 g/mg). Its methionine value is equivalent to the WHO RDA, but lower than recommended by the FDA.

Accompanying the protein is also good dollop of fat, at 5.11 g per 100 g portion.

Like the white olive, the jacket plum contains several of the essential amino acids recommended by the WHO.

The tree looks like an ordinary African tree. But sheep like the leaves so much, they trim trees in the Karoo into lollipop shapes, says Prof Ben-Erik van Wyk. He holds a National Research Chair in Indigenous Plant Use at the University of Johannesburg. He has published a series of books about Southern African plants and their medicinal and traditional uses.

"The tree is used by many cultures in Southern Africa for traditional medicine. The plant is related to the lychee, in the family Sapindaceae. The edible part in both is not the fruit itself but a fleshy attachment to the seed, which is called an aril," he adds.

Immune boost from wild fruit

All 14 of the fruits in the study contain lysine, an essential amino acid for healthy immune function in people, says Moteetee. Even better, all of them significantly exceed the RDA guideline from the WHO.

The jacket plum has the highest lysine content and is also easy to grow.

"These fruits need to be studied further to determine their commercial potential," says Moteetee.. "Measuring protein quality will tell us how digestible and bioavailable the amino acids in these fruits are, for example."

INFORMATION:

Social media videos (20 seconds long 1280X720pixels 30fp), content licenses and more available for download at Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HufDTiYW3j8gRmoBbtpJx3XNLtlkyJqI?usp=sharing

INTERVIEWS: For interviews or email questions contact Ms Therese van Wyk at Theresevw@uj.ac.za

Written by Ms. Therese van Wyk

The authors would like to acknowledge the University of Johannesburg for financial and logistical support. We are indebted to the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops, Nelspruit for fruit samples. The National Research Foundation is acknowledged for funding the project.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New model accurately predicts how coasts will be impacted by storms and sea-level rise

New model accurately predicts how coasts will be impacted by storms and sea-level rise
2021-07-07
Coastal communities across the world are increasingly facing up to the huge threats posed by a combination of extreme storms and predicted rises in sea levels as a result of global climate change. However, scientists at the University of Plymouth have developed a simple algorithm-based model which accurately predicts how coastlines could be affected and - as a result - enables communities to identify the actions they might need to take in order to adapt. The Forecasting Coastal Evolution (ForCE) model has the potential to be a game-changing advance in coastal evolution science, allowing adaptations in the shoreline to be predicted over timescales of anything from days to decades and beyond. This broad range of timescales means that the model is capable of predicting ...

Brain functional connectivity in Tourette syndrome

2021-07-07
Philadelphia, July 7, 2021 - Tourette syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, causes motor and phonic "tics" or uncontrollable repeated behaviors and vocalizations. People affected by Tourette syndrome can often suppress these tics for some time before the urges become overwhelming, and researchers have long wondered at the neural underpinnings of the suppression effort. Now, in a new study using a non-invasive technique to measure brain activity called high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG), researchers at Yale School of Medicine have assessed the impact of tic suppression on functional ...

Understanding frailty will lead to better care for older adults

2021-07-07
Frailty is a better predictor than factors such as age when determining how older adults fare one year after receiving critical care. A team led by researchers from the University of Waterloo analyzed data from more than 24,000 community-dwelling older adults receiving home care in Ontario who were subsequently admitted into an intensive-care unit (ICU). They applied three different measures for baseline frailty and found that an individual's level of frailty was linked to survival one year later. The most frail ICU survivors had only a one in five chance of living to one year after discharge. Clinical frailty is age-related and characterized ...

UK public view COVID-19 as a threat because of lockdowns, new study suggests

2021-07-07
The UK public is likely to take the COVID-19 pandemic less seriously once restrictions are lifted, according to new research led by Cardiff University. Psychologists found lockdown in itself was a primary reason why so many people were willing to abide by the rules from the start - believing the threat must be severe if the government imposes such drastic measures. The team from Cardiff and the universities of Bath and Essex examined the reasons behind headline polling support for COVID-19 measures. They carried out two UK surveys*, six months apart, during 2020. Their findings are published today in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Lead author Dr Colin Foad said: "Surprisingly, we found that people judge the severity ...

Methane in the plumes of Saturn's moon Enceladus: Possible signs of life?

Methane in the plumes of Saturns moon Enceladus: Possible signs of life?
2021-07-07
An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University. Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, inspiring research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon's rocky core and its icy shell. Flying through the plumes and sampling their chemical makeup, the Cassini spacecraft detected a relatively high concentration of certain molecules associated with hydrothermal vents on the bottom of Earth's oceans, specifically dihydrogen, ...

UT Southwestern scientists closing in on map of the mammalian immune system

UT Southwestern scientists closing in on map of the mammalian immune system
2021-07-07
Using artificial intelligence, UT Southwestern scientists have identified thousands of genetic mutations likely to affect the immune system in mice. The work is part of one Nobel laureate's quest to find virtually all such variations in mammals. "This study identifies 101 novel gene candidates with greater than 95% chance of being required for immunity," says END ...

Scientists warn on the harmful implications of losing Indigenous and local knowledge systems

Scientists warn on the harmful implications of losing Indigenous and local knowledge systems
2021-07-06
Five Simon Fraser University scholars are among international scientists sounding an alarm over the "pervasive social and ecological consequences" of the destruction and suppression of the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Their paper, published today in the Journal of Ethnobiology, draws on the knowledge of 30 international Indigenous and non-Indigenous co-authors, and highlights 15 strategic actions to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in sustaining their knowledge systems and ties to lands. Study co-lead, SFU archaeology professor Dana Lepofsky, says, "We ...

Secret to weathering climate change lies at our feet

Secret to weathering climate change lies at our feet
2021-07-06
AMHERST, Mass. - Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently discovered that the ability of agricultural grasses to withstand drought is directly related to the health of the microbial community living on their stems, leaves and seeds. "Microbes do an enormous amount for the grasses that drive the world's agriculture," says Emily Bechtold, a graduate student in UMass Amherst's microbiology department and lead author of the paper recently published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. "They protect from pathogens, provide the grass with nutrients such as nitrogen, supply hormones to bolster the plant's health and growth, protect from UV radiation ...

Personalized medicine for cats with heart disease

Personalized medicine for cats with heart disease
2021-07-06
Veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, have found that a cat's DNA alters how it responds to a life-saving medication used to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, a heart disease that affects 1 in 7 cats. The END ...

One in four adults with depression or anxiety lack mental health support during pandemic

2021-07-06
A new national study published in Psychiatric Services finds that over a quarter of US adults with depression or anxiety symptoms reported needing mental health counseling but were not able to access it during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 70,000 adults surveyed in the US Census Household Pulse Survey in December 2020. "Social isolation, COVID-related anxiety, disruptions in normal routines, job loss, and food insecurity have led to a surge in mental illness during the pandemic," said lead author, END ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Fabrication of 4-inch wafer-scale heterostructure via PECVD drives AI semiconductor performance innovation!

Plastic device aids robot-assisted heart surgery

UVM scientists find space-for-time substitutions exaggerate urban bird–habitat ecological relationships

Molecular Frontiers Symposium in Hong Kong “Frontiers of New Knowledge in Science”

Scientists reveal strigolactone perception mechanism and role in tillering responses to nitrogen

Increasing trend of overweight and obesity among Japanese patients with incident end-stage kidney disease

An extra five minutes of exercise per day could help to lower blood pressure

Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

Social media likes and comments linked to young men’s obsession with perfect pecs and a six-pack

$2.1M aids researchers in building chemical sensors to safeguard troops

Climate change parching the American West even without rainfall deficits

Power grids supplied largely by renewable sources experience lower intensity blackouts

Scientists calculate predictions for meson measurements

Mayo Clinic researchers recommend alternatives to hysterectomy for uterine fibroids, according to study

Using a fan and wetting the skin reduces risk of deadly cardiac strain in hot and humid weather

Very early medication abortion is effective and safe

Sleepiness during the day may be tied to pre-dementia syndrome

Research Spotlight: Higher brain care score found to improve brain health regardless of genetic risk

Variation in the measurement of sexual orientations is associated with sexual orientation-related mental health disparities

Study shows how high blood sugar increases risk of thrombosis

Cachexia decoded: Why diagnosis matters in cancer survival

Transportation institute awarded nearly $1 million in trucking education grants

Sewage surveillance proves powerful in combating antimicrobial resistance

Natural environment is declining: are companies doing their part to save it?

New study sheds light on the role of sound and music in gendered toy marketing

Pathogens which cling to microplastics may survive wastewater treatment

Effects of preterm birth extend into adulthood, study finds

Salmon frequently mislabeled in Seattle grocery stores and sushi restaurants

15,800-year-old engraved plaquettes from modern-day Germany depict fishing techniques, including the use of nets, not previously known in the Upper Paleolithic

How plants evolved multiple ways to override genetic instructions

[Press-News.org] Why wild African fruits can supplement low protein staple foods