Organic white mulberries

The POWDER range presents a legendary superfood: white mulberries!

As well as having high nutritional content, this natural anti-ageing fruit has multiple properties. They are antioxidant, antimicrobial, neuroprotective and help to combat diabetes and cholesterol.

With their delicate taste, our whole dried white mulberries are ideal for consuming in an aperitif or in juices, compotes, jams and even wines.

DESCRIPTION

The white mulberry is the fruit of the white mulberry tree (Morus alba L.), from the Moraceae family. Native to central and western Asia (1), this deciduous tree with lobed leaves can grow up to 12 metres tall (2, 3).

It was historically mainly cultivated in China, for its leaves (2, 3), as the sole food of silkworms (4), for its wood used to prevent soil erosion, (1) and of course for its edible fruit.

White mulberries are glomerulus of around 2 cm in diameter, formed by the union of small drupes. They have been used in traditional Chinese medicine since the 7th Century BC to reduce fever, protect the liver, strengthen joints and reduce blood pressure (1, 5). However, from the Middles Ages they began to be cultivated in Europe (2).

A tragic tale from Greek mythology offers an explanation for the different colours of mulberries. In Metamorphoses, Ovid, a Roman poet from the 1st Century BC, tells the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe, an ill-fated couple who met under a mulberry tree to commit suicide, and whose blood stained the previously white mulberries purple (4).

COMPOSITION AND BENEFITS

White mulberries contain sugars, proteins, fibres, minerals (calcium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium) (6). In addition, they are the mulberries with the highest fatty acid content, with just 1% total fat and 54.2% linoleic acid, 19.8% palmitic acid and 8.41% oleic acid (7).

White mulberries are a natural source of polyphenols (anthocyanins, flavonoids, coumarins, sterols, etc.) (3). These antioxidant compounds facilitate the antimicrobial activity of white mulberries (1, 6). Polyphenols also help to combat diabetes, because they appear to inhibit the enzyme alpha-glucosidase and free radical attacks (9). They also have a neuroprotective effect, because the anthocyanins preserve the membrane and mitochondrial functions of neurons (8).

Various experimental studies have also shown that white mulberries have lipid-lowering activity and help to inhibit lipid peroxidation. These studies have shown how, despite a diet rich in cholesterol, taking aqueous extract of white mulberries reduces cholesterol levels (1).

White mulberries have digestive properties (laxative and carminative) as well as anti-flu and antipyretic properties (fever-reducing) (5).

USE, DIRECTIONS

Consume 10 g of white mulberries daily. White mulberries can be eaten whole in an aperitif or in juices, syrups, compotes, jams and even wines (6).