Incredible health benefits and a short season has made the Australian-owned Queen Garnet plum one of the most premium and in demand varieties in the world.
Developed in a breeding program from the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and licensed by Australian company Nutrafruit, the Queen Garnet plum is known for having 6-8 times the antioxidant content of blueberries.
It’s classified as a new variety of the Japanese plum Prunus salicina Lindl. and there is a growing body of research showing the Queen Garnet could have huge benefits for health issues including obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Nutrafruit board chairman and director Bill Hatton says interest in the superfruit exploded in February 2015, following a report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Landline program.
“Things were ticking along nicely before that, and then the program came out and we had thousands of enquiries from all around the world. I think it was something like 4600 emails we got within a week,” he says.
“Then this year Landline ran another program with an update on the science, and we had 1500 emails over night. It’s totally beyond belief.”
While still a new variety, the science behind the Queen Garnet plum is impressive. In particular, a study conducted at the University of Southern Queensland found that feeding morbidly obese rats the equivalent of one Queen Garnet plum per day could return them to good health without any change in their poor diet except for the addition of the plum.
Data from the study showed that blood pressure, heart function, liver structure and function, hormone changes and obesity levels in the rats all returned to normal levels over the eight week period – a result that astounded researchers and health professionals alike.
Mr Hatton says the key is in the purple colour of the fruit, which comes from a high level of anthocyanins – a plant compound that acts as a powerful antioxidant within the human body.
“It’s the health-giving part of the fruit and veg. When you get something dark purple, such as blueberries or beetroot, you know it has anthocyanins, and the levels for the Queen Garnet are out of this world,” Mr Hatton says.
“What the research on anythcyanins, and the Queen Garnet plum in particular, shows is that all of the problems that come from the body’s inflammatory reaction to a bad, or insufficient diet can be improved by having anthocyanin rich foods or drinks.”
“Basically, when you add antioxidants into your diet, your body will take them up quickly and with this plum it is really quick. It’s within the blood stream in minutes, and this takes the bad guys out – in effect it knocks the oxidants out, that’s why they’re called antioxidants.”
There is a huge body of research from all around the world supporting the inclusion of antioxidant rich foods as part of a healthy, balanced diet. But very few studies have shown such significant health changes as the University of Southern Queensland’s trial of Queen Garnet plums on rats.
The staggering response Nutrafruit has received is a testament to the power of these results – and early trials on humans are also showing positive outcomes from the inclusion of Queen Garnet plums in their diet.
“We get people all the time calling us or emailing us to let us know how much of a difference they’ve noticed since having the Queen Garnet plums, or the nectar or powder we sell on our website,” Mr Hatton says.
“The story just tells itself, and what I love about it is that it’s a real Aussie story. This is a plum bred in Queensland, grown in Queensland, packed in Queensland – it’s an absolute Australian success story, except now it’s gone global.”
As the exclusive licence holder for the plum, he says Nutrafruit is now working with growers in countries all around the world, including the United States, Spain, France, as well as other parts of Europe, South Africa and South America.
“Each day I respond to a lot of requests that come in from growers, but we also have standards the growers need to meet,” he says.
“So I’ll tell them the minimum number of trees they need to plant and also make it clear that any growers that want to enter the Queen Garnet euphoria, if you like, have to have experience with plums. They can be buggers to grow, and you have to have control over pollination with a good polliniser, so experience with that is very important to us.”
The Queen Garnet plum season runs for around 6-8 weeks from late January in Australia, and fresh fruit is sold domestically as well as in Asia. Nutrafruit also sells a pure Queen Garnet plum nectar and a probiotic powder, available on their website at retailers in Australia.
Nutrafruit expects there will be 250,000 Queen Garnet plum trees planted across Australia by September 2016, increasing the availability of both the fresh fruit and the value-added products on the market.
