Camu camuMyrciaria dubia

Did you know?

• Fresh camu camu pulp typically holds about 1,500 to 3,000 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams, around 30 times as much as an orange^{[2, 7, 8]}.

• It was first described in 1823 as a guava, Psidium dubium, and moved to its present genus, Myrciaria, only in 1963; dubia is Latin for "doubtful"^{[1, 4, 9]}.

• The shrubs stand partly or fully under water for several months of every year^{[10, 11]}.

• Fish such as the tambaqui, a large Amazon fish, feed on the fruit, and until recently camu camu was used in Peru mostly as fish bait^[7].

• The fruit ripens as the river rises, so it is often picked from canoes^{[2, 10]}.

• In 2008 Japan was the biggest buyer of Peru's camu camu exports^[2].

Origins and history

Camu camu grows as a bushy shrub, usually 2 to 4 meters tall and sometimes taller, in dense thickets along the edges of Amazonian rivers and oxbow lakes^{[2, 7, 10, 12]}. Its small white flowers are fragrant, and its round fruits, 2 to 3 centimeters across, turn from green to red to deep purple as they ripen^{[2, 7, 13]}. Each fruit holds one to four flat seeds^[7]. The fruit is so sour that it is rarely eaten raw^{[3, 7]}; instead it is mostly made into juices and other drinks, ice cream and sweets, and sometimes jams and liqueurs^{[2, 7, 10]}.

Before it was planted as a crop, camu camu was a wild fruit, gathered along the rivers and sold in the markets of Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon^{[2, 10]}. It was promoted as a fruit in the 1970s, and once its high vitamin C content was discovered, researchers around the world took an interest^[2]. In 1996 Peru's government began funding projects to plant it on the river floodplains, aiming for 5,000 hectares, and thousands of smallholder families took up the crop^[2]. Today it is sold in Japan, Europe and North America, mostly as a vitamin C-rich ingredient in foods and dietary supplements^[2].

Traditional uses

Camu camu is known in the Amazon as a wild fruit made into drinks and sweets rather than taken as an herb^{[2, 7]}, and studies in people are still few and small^[3], but its vitamin C is its story.

• Drinks and sweets

  In Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, the sour fruit is made into juices, ice cream and sweets rather than eaten raw.^{[2, 7, 10]}

• Vitamin C for immune support

  Vitamin C supports healthy immune function.*^[14]

• Antioxidant compounds

  Camu camu provides naturally occurring antioxidant compounds, including vitamin C and ellagic acid.*^{[11, 13]}

• Healthy skin

  Vitamin C supports the body's normal production of collagen for healthy skin.*^[14]

Plant compounds

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is camu camu's main antioxidant^{[11, 13]}. The fruit also contains ellagic acid and ellagitannins^{[2, 11, 13]}; anthocyanins, mainly cyanidin-3-glucoside, which give ripe fruit its color^{[2, 11, 13]}; flavonols such as myricetin and quercetin^{[11, 13]}; and carotenoids, including beta-carotene^{[2, 11]}. It also contains small amounts of amino acids, including valine and leucine^[11]. Vitamin C content varies with ripeness and growing region, and declines during storage^{[2, 8, 13]}.