Europe Recognizes Health Benefits of Baobab Fruit

In Senegal, villagers have always known about the health benefits of baobab fruit, which only now have been discovered by Europe in what could spell magic for localities like Fandene.


The ancient, hardy species also known as the "tree of life" is scattered across the African savannah, some said to date back to the time of Christ.


Locals use and benefit from nearly every part of the tree, whose processed fruit was approved for European import last month.




"You use the monkey bread fruit if you have a belly ache," said farmer Aloyse Tine, using the local name for baobab fruit. "If you're tired you eat the leaves, they are good for you."


The seeds can be pressed to extract oil used for cooking and the bark can be used to make ropes. In the past, the hollow bark was also used to bury "griots", a special West African cast of poets, musicians and sorcerers.


Farmer Tine, like others, used to lug his fruit to sell in the market in the nearby town of Thies.


Three years ago, he started selling instead to the Baobab Fruit Company, a Senegalese firm run by three Italians. It is the country's only industrialised producer of dried baobab fruit pulp, which it exports for use in cosmetics and certain dietary supplements.


The new income has already made changes. It "allows me to send my kids to school," he said.
Enter PhytoTrade Africa, a non-governmental organisation that focuses on developing fair trade and environmentally sustainable natural products which benefits the community..


Sensing potential, it launched in 2006 the process that would open European Union markets to this nutritious African oddity. Under EU rules, any "novel" food -- one not commonly consumed in Europe before 1997 -- requires special approval for use in the 27-member bloc.
"Approval for the baobab is fantastic news for Africa," said PhytoTrade's Cyril Lombard after the EU decision.


"Opening the European market to the  benefits of  this product will make a real difference to poor rural communities there, offering them a potentially life-changing source of income."


One of these is Thiawe Thiawe, where 41-year-old Delphine farms some 20 baobab trees scattered outside her house.


"I've collected the fruits since I was a little girl with my grandmother," she told AFP. Like Tine, her life is a little easier since she started selling to the Baobab Fruit company rather than hawking her own goods.


"It's better to sell here than there, you don't have to wear yourself out going to Thies."


The Baobab Fruit Company says it already sees a spike in interest from Europe, where the pulp will likely be used in cereal bars and health drinks.


"Now we collect 150 to 200 tonnes of baobab fruit each harvest. In the last weeks there has been an explosion in demand," Laudana Zorzella told AFP at the factory in Thies.


"We are thinking we will need a much bigger harvest next time," she said. "In Senegal alone we estimate we could collect 13 thousand tonnes of fruit."


But what can baobab fruit, also known as monkey's bread, bring in the way of benefits to health-conscious Europe?


According to the International Centre for Underutilized Crops at the University of Southhampton, the baobab is "a fruit of the future", rich in vitamin C, B1, B2 and calcium and chock-full of anti-oxidants.


In Senegal, its pulp is mostly used to make Bouye, a milky, tart juice made by boiling the pulp and seeds with water and sugar.


Some scientists calculate the fruit has three times as much vitamin C as oranges and has more calcium than a glass of milk.


And the tree is well adapted to arid conditions, tolerating both drought and poorly drained soil, and is fire resistant. Also known as the "upside down tree" for its bulbous trunk and spindly branches that look like roots, it can grow to be hundreds if not thousands of years old.


A study for PhytoTrade Africa conducted by the Natural Resources Institute in Britain suggested that wild harvesting of baobab fruit could generate trade of up to one billion dollars (640 million euros) a year for African producers.


Some environmentalists fear such commercial exploitation could lead to extinction of the iconic tree.


But Zorzella dismissed this, stressing that her company uses only the fruit and leaves the tree intact. "And if it becomes an important revenue the farmers will know that they have to protect the tree," she said.


In Fandene, Aloyse said this lesson has already been learned. As new baobabs sprout spontaneously, they are protected and allowed to grow.


"There are cattle herders that cut the leaves (to feed their animals) but we are starting to stop them now. That's not good because we need the trees to produce fruit," he said.


After the EU's approval, "everybody is asking for our products so they can test the health and nutrition benefits of the baobab," Zorzella said.


She estimated Europe's major food companies would need up to eight months for research and development before consumers there can actually get their own sip of a baobab smoothie or health bar.


Source-AFP

Vitamin and mineral foods markets to flower in Africa?

Opportunities in emerging markets continue to flower for foods fortified with vitamins and minerals as growing urbanisation sees populations turning away from fruit and vegetables in Uganda.


With an annual growth rate of 4.0 per cent, and an economy marked as having 'great potential' by the US government, officials in Uganda, it would appear, are encouraging their citizens to turn to fortified foods.


"Fortified foods offer affordable and immediate opportunities to improve lives and accelerate socio economic development.


They eradicate vitamin and mineral deficiencies which is a problem in many families," said Jacinta Sabiti, a senior medical officer in charge of the micronutrients desk at the Ministry of Health, reports Uganda's daily news site 'The New Vision'.


Afflicted by years of chronic political instability and erratic economic management, today Uganda is enjoying firmer growth as steps by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's government, in place since early 1986, towards economic rehabilitation start to bear fruit. In the fiscal year 2006-2007 the country witnessed a growth rate at a healthy 7 per cent.


Recent market figures on nutraceutical sales for the region substantiate the credence that emerging economies can deliver new opportunities for industry players.


In 2006, multivitamins were the biggest selling product in Africa and the Middle East, with combined sales of almost $300m, according to data gathered by Capsugel's global business development manager for dietary supplements Peter Zambetti, and pooled from Euromonitor, Datamonitor, Mintel and Nutrition Business Journal.


In addition, vitamin B saw sales of almost $150m, and vitamin C sold almost $75m. Calcium and child specific products stood at the $50m mark, with other products below $50m including minerals, vitamin E, tonics and fish oils.


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The figures are small when compared to the global nutraceutical marketplace that witnessed sales in excess of $52bn in 2006, according to Zambetti.


But they do suggest a budding marketplace.


And not necessarily just one-way, with African-sourced plants in turn targetting European shelves.


The southern Africa natural products trade association, PhytoTrade Africa, in collaboration with South African company, Afriplex, are hoping fruit from the iconic African baobab tree could soon receive novel foods approval.


Approval would unlock the EU market for this large green or brown fruit of the Adansonia digitata, (or 'upside-down') tree, enabling its use as a food ingredient in European food products, such as cereal bars and smoothies.


The de-pectinised fruit pulp could also be used as an ingredient in other products, like biscuits and confectionery, says PhytoTrade Africa.


Baobab has not been commonly consumed in the EU prior to May 1997, meaning that approval must be gained under novel foods legislation before it can be used in products for the European market.


The wheels were set in motion last year by PhytoTrade Africa when it submitted an application to the UK's Food Standards Agency.

The many wonders of the baobab fruit

The Guardian U.K.

Normally, as we all know from our close reading of tabloid headlines, the EU is too busy banning the old - bendy bananas, imperial weights from picturesque market stalls, etc - to have time to let in the new.

However, after much lobbying by non-profit trade association PhytoTrade Africa, the EU this week announced that it had approved the fruit of the African baobab (or monkey bread) tree for use in the UK, thereby opening up a potentially lucrative market and creating employment for millions on the continent.

"It is a wonderful fruit!" rhapsodises Antonio Perez, who spent many years travelling around its native land before opening the African Kitchen Gallery Restaurant in central London. "It is very nutritious, full of vitamin C and vitamin A. It has a very special flavour, but the closest I can get to it is jackfruit, which is like melon."

But what can you do with it? Well, when it comes to the baobab fruit, it seems simpler to ask what can't you do with it. In Africa, it is used to alleviate various medical complaints, the leaves are eaten as a vegetable, and the seeds can be eaten raw or roasted, or ground to make an edible oil and thickener for soups and stews.

"For the fruit itself, you can peel it and slice it and cook it with anything - beef, chicken, even bake or grill it with fish," says Perez. "Roast it, mash it, puree it ..." Coming as it does from a culture with no tradition of writing down cookery methods, he says there is no master recipe. "They are learned from family to family, everybody will cook it differently. It will bring the flavour. You must bring your imagination."

You may need a smidgen more imagination than usual for now, as the EU has so far only approved the powdery pulp of the fruit for dismally denatured use in things like cereal bars and smoothies, but Perez remains undaunted. "It is like flour - you can blend it with anything," he urges. "You could make it into something like polenta, into porridge and have it for supper. It is a fantastic fruit."