Native Ingredients: Medicinal Benefits, Nutrition and More

A recent article published on SBS Food, sang the praises for Mountain Pepperberry. It tastes delicious, yes, offers a peppery, pungent kick to food, to be sure, but there’s more than that. This little berry – which looks like a traditional peppercorn – has four times the antioxidants of a blueberry and offers medicinal benefits ranging from treating stomach distress to skin disorders to helping fight viruses. Indeed, it does contain anti-viral and antimicrobial properties, and as such has been a natural medicine used by indigenous communities for centuries.

And it’s not the only one.

The untapped potential of the health and medicinal benefits of native foods continues to exceed our expectations and researchers are constantly looking to gather a deeper understanding of just how good these products are. And we are too!

More than that though, we are committed to sharing this knowledge and education with you, and helping you understand why using Lemon Myrtle is about more than just using a native ingredient that has a nice lemon scent:

Mountain Pepperberry and Pepperleaf

• Antiviral and antimicrobial, and it is able to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria.
• Its ability to inhibit growth of protozoa means it can act in helping preserve food and reduce food poisoning risk
• It offers anti-cancer activity, due partly to its antioxidants, and has been shown to have positive effects against many different lines of cancer.

Strawberry Gum  

• A common medicinal solution for stomach distress, native communities moisten the leaves and then lay them over the fire to release their healing oils.
• Contains anti-fungal and antibiotic properties, which when consuming the leaves, can help rebalance gut flora

Aniseed Myrtle

• Contains the compound anethole, which can treat intestinal cramps and gut distress.
• It has anti-fungal and antimicrobial properties, with strong function as an antioxidant

Lemon Myrtle

• This plant offers the most concentrated form of CItral, a compound that contains antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties.
• Rich in phytochemicals, a class of antioxidants which thrive in water-loving and water-adverse environments. This allows the antioxidants to provide comprehensive protection against oxidative stress

When you consume native ingredients, not only are you getting a new flavour profile to add to your favourite dish and make it taste good, but you are also benefiting from the medicinal properties. With these foods being grown on Australian lands for over 50 000 years, the benefits are well documented and indigenous communities still use them to this day for many of these gains. And supporting indigenous communities just makes the ingredient consumption that much more rewarding.

So the next time you are having stomach distress, feel a virus or flu coming on, or just want to help protect your body against the damaging effects of toxins and oxidative stress, reach for a native ingredient. It will taste good and heal you at the same time!

News, Nutrition