Why is aronia called chokeberry?
The common name chokeberry may come from the fact that its fruits are very bitter when eaten right off the tree. This leggy shrub can spread on suckers to grow into an attractive border thicket, which produces showy white flowers in spring and berries that attract birds in the fall. The authors emphasized that the consumption of chokeberry fruit, chokeberry juices, and chokeberry infusions does not pose a threat to human health [1,24].This small yet potent fruit provides an array of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which contribute to its health benefits. Chokecherry has a variety of medicinal uses. Dried berries were used to treat several bowel conditions, from diarrhea to loss of appetite, and those suffering from ulcers and other conditions.
What’s another name for chokeberry?
Because “chokeberry” did not market well as an edible fruit, much work was done within the industry to rebrand this fruit under the common name Aronia berry, derived from the genus name (Geiger, 2020). Aronia is a woody shrub that can grow 4–8 feet tall in the wild. Although aronia berries can be eaten raw, some people don’t like the way these berries dry out their mouths. Luckily, there are a number of ways to prepare aronia berries to make them more palatable. One popular way to serve them is in pies.
What does chokeberry do for your body?
The fruits of Aronia melanocarpa (Aronia berries) have been found to show multiple bioactivities potentially beneficial to human health, including antidiabetic, anti-infective, antineoplastic, antiobesity, and antioxidant activities, as well as heart-, liver-, and neuroprotective effects. The high levels of antioxidants, particularly anthocyanins, in aronia berries can help protect eyes from oxidative stress and reduce the risk of age-related eye disorders, such as macular degeneration and cataracts.