Background

The Baobab fruit is the stuff of African legend. Baobab fruit powder forms naturally inside the hardshelled fruit of the African Baobab tree. The Baobab tree is known as the upside down tree, an ancient tree of life. The bark, leaves and fruit are widely used in traditional medicines. It is one of the oldest trees on the planet dating back thousands of years. At around 20 metres tall, the Baobab tree towers majestically over its neighbours on the African savannahs.

Production Process

The closed Baobab fruits are directly collected in Senegal's driest regions, under supervision of expert qualified professionals. Activity is focused on species that are abundant and that can be collected with minimal environmental impact. We use a simple, exclusively mechanical, process to obtain the fruit pulp. First the fruit is harvested, the hard outer shell of the fruit is cracked and the contents removed. The seeds are then separated from fibrous material and mesocarp. This is screened to remove further unwanted fibrous and flaky material, leaving a fine mesocarp powder. To maintain the high level of nutrients present in the pulp only two hours occur from opening to final packaging.

Nutritional Information

100g of Baobab fruit pulp contain 75.6 % of total carbohydrates, 2.3 % of proteins and a very low content of lipids. The fruit contributes to the supply of many important dietary nutrients, minerals and essential fatty acids.

Vitamin C
Baobab fruit is known for its high content of ascorbic acid, approximately six times more than the ascorbic acid content of one orange. Ascorbic acid is extremely important as nutritional element and as a supplement.

Dietary fibre
Adequate levels of dietary fibre in the diet can help maintain a healthy digestive tract as well as lower blood cholesterol levels. Baobab contains higher levels of dietary fibre than other fruits including apples, peaches, apricots and bananas. Pectin is one source of fibre in baobab and has been reported to have a role in reduction of total and LDL cholesterol.

Calcium
Baobab contains higher levels of calcium than milk. When compared to other fruits such as apples, apricots, bananas and peaches, Baobab shows a higher calcium content as well as being reported to have higher levels than other ‘superfruits’ such as blueberries, cranberries and pomegranates.

Antioxidants
Baobab fruit powderhas an antioxidant value (ORAC) of 25,000/100g which is more than double that of pomegranates and cranberries, and more than three times the reported figure for blueberries.