''Myrciaria dubia'', commonly known as camu-camu, caçari, araçá-d'água, or camocamo, is a species of plant in the family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

. It is a small bushy riverside

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

from the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, which grows to a height of and bears a red/purple

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

-like

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. It is a close relative of the false jaboticaba ('' Myrciaria vexator'') and the guavaberry or rumberry ('' Myrciaria floribunda''). As much as 2 to 3% of the fresh fruit by weight is

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...

Description

Camu-camu has small

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s with waxy white

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s and a sweet-smelling

aroma An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is a smell or a scent caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive v ...

. It has bushy, feathery foliage. The

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

opposite leaves In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaf, leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic leaf#Arrangement on the stem, arrangements of leaves ...

are lanceolate to elliptic. Individual leaves are in length and wide. The camu-camu fruit is maroon or purple-black when fully ripe, around 25 mm in diameter, with either sweet or acidic flesh.

Native range

The current range of camu-camu consists of the Amazonian lowlands of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, Peru,

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, and Brazil. Its distribution extends from the center of

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

state, Brazil, along the mid and upper Amazon River to the eastern part of Peru; in the north, it appears in the

Casiquiare canal The Casiquiare river or canal () is a natural distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the ...

and the upper and middle

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

. In Brazil, it is found in

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

along the Maçangana and Urupá Rivers and in Amazonas, in the municipalities of

Manaus Manaus () is the List of capitals of subdivisions of Brazil, capital and largest city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. It is the List of largest cities in Brazil, seventh-largest city in Brazil, w ...

and

Manacapuru Manacapuru (''Munychapur'') is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Manacapuru is the third most populous city in the state. Its Human Development Index (HDI) in 2010 was 0.614, and its GDP per capita in 2021 was $2,717.89 ...

and along the Javari, Madeira, and Negro Rivers.

Harvest

Long used by native peoples, wild camu-camu fruit is harvested directly into canoes. The fruit has only recently come into large-scale cultivation and sale to the world market, with

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

being the major buyer. The tree is relatively easy to cultivate within certain growing conditions. It survives best in hot, damp, tropical climates, but will grow in the subtropics, surviving temperatures down to just above freezing. It requires copious water. Fair trade is present in low-land production from the Association of Camu Camu Producers of the Peruvian Amazon. The tree occurs in locally dense populations or even monospecific stands in Amazonian flood plains and riparian vegetation. The plant is extremely tolerant of flooding, withstanding four to five months with the roots and even much of the aerial parts submerged in water. The species propagates through seeds. In cultivation, the tree begins bearing fruits after attaining in stem girth (three years after emergence of the seedling). Plants flower at the end of the dry season and produce fruit at the peak of the rainy season. Observations with both wild and cultivated plants suggest that the trees can remain productive for several decades. Wild trees have been found to yield of fruit on average. At suggested planting densities of 600–1100 trees per , about fruit may be derived in cultivation from one hectare.

Nutrition

Per 100 g of fresh fruit: * Protein 0.4 g * Carbohydrates 5.9 g * Starches 0.44 g * Sugars 1.28 g * Dietary Fiber 1.1 g * Fat 0.2 g * Calcium 15.7 mg * Copper 0.2 mg * Iron 0.53 mg * Magnesium 12.4 mg * Manganese 2.1 mg * Potassium 83.9 mg * Sodium 11.1 mg * Zinc 0.2 mg * Vitamin C: ranges from 1882–2280 mg depending on ripeness. Camu-camu has an extraordinarily high

content (on the order of 2–3% of fresh weight). Vitamin C content declines as full maturity is reached, with a trade-off between vitamin C and flavor expression. The fruit is rich in flavonoids, such as

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are solubility, water-soluble vacuole, vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compou ...

flavonol Flavonols are a class of flavonoids that have the 3-hydroxyflavone backbone (IUPAC name: 3-hydroxy-2-phenylchromen-4-one). Their diversity stems from the different positions of the phenolic –OH groups. They are distinct from flavanols (with ...

flavanol Flavan-3-ols (sometimes referred to as flavanols) are a subgroup of flavonoids. They are derivatives of flavans that possess a 2-phenyl-3,4-dihydro-2''H''-chromen-3-ol skeleton. Flavan-3-ols are structurally diverse and include a range of comp ...

catechin Catechin is a flavan-3-ol, a type of secondary metabolite providing antioxidant roles in plants. It belongs to the subgroup of polyphenols called flavonoids. The name of the catechin chemical family derives from ''catechu'', which is the tannic ...

s, delphinidin 3-glucoside,

cyanidin 3-glucoside Chrysanthemin is an anthocyanin. It is the 3-glucoside of cyanidin (kuromanin). Natural occurrences Chrysanthemin can be found in the roselle plant (''Hibiscus sabdariffa'', Malvaceae), different Japanese angiosperms, '' Rhaponticum'' (Asterac ...

ellagic acid Ellagic acid is a polyphenol found in numerous fruits and vegetables. It is the dilactone of hexahydroxydiphenic acid. Name The name comes from the French term ''acide ellagique'', from the word ''galle'' spelled backward because it can be o ...

, and

rutin Rutin (rutoside, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside or sophorin) is the glycoside combining the flavonol quercetin and the disaccharide rutinose (α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranose). It is a flavonoid glycoside found in a wide variety of pla ...

. Other analysis revealed the presence of gallic and

s, suggesting that the fruit possesses hydrolyzed tannins (

gallotannin A gallotannin is any of a class of molecules belonging to the hydrolysable tannins. Gallotannins are polymers formed when gallic acid, a polyphenol monomer, esterifies and binds with the hydroxyl group of a polyol carbohydrate such as glucose. Met ...

and

ellagitannins image:Castalagin.svg, 130px, Castalagin is a representative ellagitannin, characterized by coupled gallic acid substituents The ellagitannins are a diverse class of hydrolyzable tannins, a type of polyphenol formed primarily from the oxidative link ...

Uses

Documentation of traditional camu-camu uses is scarce. In traditional Amazonian societies, camu-camu is not likely to have ever been nutritionally relevant except for its vitamin C content. The fruit is extremely acidic and the flavor much like a sour grape with a large pit. The fruit is often used to make a very pink juice with a little sugar (like lemonade). A reddish pigment in the leathery skin of the fruit imparts a pink color on juices extracted from camu-camu. The aroma is subtle, but is not so captivating as in more popular fruits. Recently, camu-camu is used in

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

s and sweets and processed powder from the fruit pulp is beginning to be sold in the west as a health food in loose powder or capsule form. Native Amazonian groups living on the banks of the

Nanay River The Nanay River is a river in northern Peru. It is a tributary of the Amazon River, merging into this river at the city of Iquitos. The lower part of the Nanay flows to the north and west of the city, while the Itaya River flows to the south a ...

in the

Loreto region Loreto () is Peru's northernmost department and region. Covering almost one-third of Peru's territory, Loreto is by far the nation's largest department, slightly smaller than Japan; it is also one of the most sparsely populated regions due to ...

of Peru, have been reported as using camu-camu as a traditional remedy for the treatment of malaria.

Conservation issues

Overharvesting of wild camu-camu threatens to make it an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. Efforts are underway to encourage commercial growing of camu-camu in the Amazon River basin.

References

External links

Conservation issues
with pictures of the tree, fruits, and harvest method.
''Myrciaria dubia'' List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's Database)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1031775 dubia Trees of Brazil Trees of Peru Trees of the Amazon rainforest Crops originating from Peru Berries Trees of South America Crops originating from the Americas Tropical fruit Flora of Southern America Fruits originating in South America Fruit trees