The Haskap berry provides exceptionally high levels of antioxidants - up to three times that of a Blueberry and has vitamin C content higher than that of an orange.

Haskap berries have great health benefits, vitamin C contents range from 50mg-100mg/100g of the berries, outranking Blueberries. Secondly, they are a great source of antioxidants and other flavonoids such as: Rutin, Ferulic acid, Epicatechin, Genistic acid, Protocatechuic acid, Caffeic Acid, Ellagitannins, Quercetin and many others which help fight cancer and other diseases.

The antioxidant levels are measured using the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) method. A wide variety of foods have been tested using this methodology, with the Haskap Berry being rated very highly in comparison with other berries. 

February 2012 Report on Haskap Antioxidant levels and Phenolic content in comparison with other berries

We have now received the results from our own independent tests to see how our cultivars fared against other fruits and berries.  Working closely with Vasantha Rupasinghe from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro we confirmed what we already knew!   We compared 3 varieties of Haskap Berry (Borealis, Indigo Gem and Tundra) to partridgeberry, blackberry, wild blueberry, strawberry, raspberry and red table grape.

Not content with the standard ORAC test, Dr Rupasinghe carried out a number of different analyses to corroborate his findings, all of whose results confirmed the Haskap varieties to have the highest antioxidant values of all the berries tested.

In his own words “The results indicated that haskap berries possessed the highest antioxidant capacities and total phenolic contents, specifically total flavonoid among the tested fruits and could be used as a promising fruit source of natural dietary antioxidants”

Dr. Rupasinghe's additional tests included a FRAP assay, total flavonoid content and total phenoic content. The results can be viewed below.

ORAC:
A food's antioxidant power is measured in units called ORACs, or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. The ORAC scale was developed by USDA researchers to measure different foods’ antioxidant capacity.
The ORAC measurement refers to how much radical oxygen a food can absorb – that is, its effect on combating damaging free radicals. 

FRAP
The FRAP assay is often used to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods, beverages and nutritional supplements containing polyphenols.
It is a simple, automated test to measure the ferric reducing ability of antioxidants. The FRAP assay is presented as a novel method for assessing "antioxidant power."

Total flavonoid content
Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds present in vegetables, fruits, berries and beverages such as tea, red wine and fruit juices, having similar effects as antioxidants

Total Phenolic content
Phenols are plant chemicals that help the body form antioxidants.

You can download the report here.

You can download a copy of the Haskap Nutrition and Uses document here: Click here

The total mineral content of the Haskap berry is well balanced and packed with nutritious goodies as you can see from the comparison below: