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June – Kakadu Plum

Common Name: Kakadu Plum, Billy Goat Plum, Green Plum, Salty Plum, Wild Plum
Murunga, Marnybi, Manmohpan, Kullari Plum, Gubinge (Aboriginal)
Botanical Name: Terminalia ferdinandiana
Part Used: Mature ripe fruits or fruit pulp, freeze dried fruits
   
Photos Kakadu Plum foliage and fruit   fruits of kakadu plum
     
  kakadu plum bushes  Kakadu plum plant with fruit
Seasonality: Fresh fruit is available from Jan-July pending on region.
   
 
Nutritional Values:
Energy H2O Protein Fat Carbohydrates Total Sugar Fibre
89kJ / 100gm 76.2 gm / 100 gm 0.8 gm / 100 gm 0.5 gm / 100 gm     7.1gm / 100 gm
Na: 10.45 µg K: 1901 µg Mg: 203.8 µg Ca: 282.5 µg Fe: 3.99 µg Zn: 0.2 mg Cu: 0.3 µg
Source: Brand Miller, J., James, K.W. and Maggiore, P. (1993) Tables of Composition of Australian Aboriginal Foods. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Konczak, I., Zabaras, D., Dunstan, M., Aguas, P., Roulfe, R., Pavan, A., (2009) Health Benefits of Australian Native Foods, RIRDC Pub. No. 09/133.
 
History of Use: Gubinge is considered a gift of the Dreamtime by Aboriginal culture (Moodie, 2005). The trees grow over a large area in WA, QLD and NT and it is reported that children were fond of the fresh fruits in season (Hughes, 1995; Cherikoff, 2004;)Kakadu Plum is an important bush food for northern Australian Indigenous people for millennia. Traditional dietary consumption by Australian Aborigines is described by Brand et al. (1982a,b) Porteus (1983), Isaacs (1987), Pain (1988), Peerzada et al (1990), Brock (1993), Cherikoff (2004), Collins (2007).Contemporary use over the last 84 years prior to commercialisation is noted by Hollingworth (1997) and Hughes (1995).Santich (1994) reports Kakadu plum being served in restaurants. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (1998) lists Kakadu plum in the fruit group as a good source of vitamins, including Vitamin C and folate.Kakadu plum is viewed by FSANZ as a traditional food of Australia for its historic consumption by the wider Australian population (FSANZ, 2009) and is listed in the CODEX Alimentarius for inclusion. The fruit has been exported to the EU prior to 1997 (Cherikoff, 2008).
 
Flavour profiles: A stewed apple and pear aroma, cooked citrus and a floral-musk note. Taste is sour with sore astringency.Smyth, H., 2009, Native food forum awakens senses, Media Release, Queensland Government, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries.
 
Products available: Kakadu Plum is used in products such as jams, preserves, sauces, relishes, juices, deserts and ice cream. Pain (1988), Hollingworth (1997), Graham and Hart (1997a,b), Lindsay (2000), Cherikoff (2001), Australian Food & Wine (2002), ACC (2004), Robins (2004) describe the use in contemporary applications.
The bulk of the product is used in a jam, sauce or juice (TGA, 2003; Stamos, 2007).
 
Recipes: Find some fantastic recipes on the ANFIL website.
 
Essential oil profiles:  
 
   
Functionality: Kakadu plum gained world wide recognition when it was discovered that it is a fruit with the highest recorded levels of natural Vitamin C content in the world, measuring up to 7000 mg/100g DW, which is 100 times the Vitamin C content in oranges.
Compared to blueberries’ antioxidant TEAC value of 39.45 Trolox equivalents/g per, Kakadu plum shows values of 204.8 Trolox equivalents/g.
Kakadu plum contains a strong fat-soluble antioxidant, Vitamin E: 6.1mg/100g DW and 50% of the recommended daily intake. Lutein (1.52 +/- 0.09mg/100g DW) was found to be higher than in avocado (0.615-1.05mg/100g DW), which is considered to be a primary source of this health giving carotenoid, important for eye health. Further a high potassium:sodium (K:Na) ratio has been detected, which may assist to develop foods to reduce hypertension.Kakadu Plum exhibited superior oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC-T) which is 5.7 fold that of Blueberry, with the hydrophilic fractions contributing 73.5% and the lipophilic fractions 26.5 % of the total oxygen radical absorbance capacity.
Most fruits only contain hydrophilic antioxidants, which do not accumulate in the body, while lipophilic antioxidants increase bioavailability of compounds, which may provide more comprehensive protection from oxidative stress.
In the FRAP assay Kakadu Plum displayed an outstanding total reducing capacity which is 10.5 fold that of Blueberry.
Of twelve commercially available native foods tested, Kakadu Plum was the richest source of phenolic compounds, 4.7 times higher than blueberries.
Folate in Kakadu Plum measured 110.0 µg/100g DW (Blueberries: 39.6µg/100g DW).
Konczak, I., Zabaras, D., Dunstan, M., Aguas, P., Roulfe, R., Pavan, A., (2009) Health Benefits of Australian Native Foods, RIRDC Pub. No. 09/133.
 
Research: McDonald, J. K., Caffin, N. A., Sommano, S., Cicksedge, R., (2006) the effect of post harvest handling on selected native food plants, RIRDC Pub. No 06/021.Konczak, I., Zabaras, D., Dunstan, M., Aguas, P., Roulfe, R., Pavan, A., (2009) Health Benefits of Australian Native Foods, RIRDC Pub. No. 09/133.
 
Description: Small to moderate sized tree between 4 – 10 m high. Trunk has a rough, creamy greay bark, flaky and finely tessellated. The leaves are spirally arranged and dense towards the ends of the branchlets.
The fruit is yellow to green and beaked, containing a single seed.
 
Growing information:

Kakadu Plum is currently Wild Harvested – commercial plantations are currently being investigated.

Author: Sibylla Hess-Buschmann.
Contributors: Rus Glover, Quentin Blades
The Commonwealth of Australia, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), the authors or contributors expressly disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any act or omission, or for any consequences of any such act or omission, made in reliance on the contents of this publication, whether or not caused by any negligence on the part of the Commonwealth of Australia, RIRDC, ANFIL, the authors or contributors.
The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the views in this publication.
This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. However, wide dissemination is encouraged. Requests and inquiries concerning use of material should be made to research@anfil.org.au
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