The Chokeberry Super Fruit...!!!The Chokeberry Fruit The Chokeberry genus is Aronia and the predominant species found today are the Aronia arbutifolia and the Aronia melanocarpa. This berry producing tree is more of a bush-like plant, native to the Eastern North American continent, and mostly found in wetland, swampy areas. There are two common species to the shrub, one being the Red Chokeberry, which grows 2 to 4 meters tall and has white or pale pink flowers, and the other being the Black Chokeberry, which tends to be smaller and rarely grows taller than 1 meter. The leaves of the black chokeberry are also smaller and the flowers produced by the shrub are mostly found to come in white. The two species have also been known to cross hybridize making a third species known as the Purple Chokeberry, which produce a slightly taller plant then the Black species and produces a pinkish colored flower. Until most recently the Chokeberry, because of its size and flower concentration, was mostly always used as an ornamental plant in gardens and wooded walkways. However, due to recent interest in the berries because of their dark coloration, studies of these berries have shown that its skin covering and edible insides contain high amounts of Vitamin C and antioxidants. Once again, this berry attracted scientific interest because of its deep purple, almost black, pigmentation. And as with most dark pigmented fruit, the amount and measurement of antioxidant was strong. In fact, the strength of antioxidants for this berry proved to be one of the strongest ever recorded at over 16,100 micromoles. With antioxidants at the forefront of nutritional research, the chokeberry has seen an incredible growth in consumer interest and an increase in use for manufacturers in the health supplement industry.
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