Thursday, December 31, 2009

If You Are Planning On Planting Haskap...

...then this is a reminder that only two varieties of edible blue honeysuckle qualify for this designation. Their names are: Borealis and Tundra. You will need some less-related pollinators of haskap as well. You may read about this in Dr. Bob Bors' article entitled: Pollination Strategy (http://www.fruit.usask.ca/articles/pollinationstrategy.pdf). Edible blue honeysuckle pollinators do not qualify as haskap, even though they may be in your 'haskap orchard.' And no other varieties of edible blue honeysuckles qualify as haskap, either.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Bioactive Compounds In Honeysuckle Berries

The Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology published an article on 11/07 entitled: Survey of Bioactive Compounds in Western Canadian Berries. Berries native to Western Canada were analyzed for total anthocyanins, total phenolics, and trolox equivalentantioxidant activity (TEAC). It found that honeysuckle fruits contained the highest amount of polyphenols.

If you have access to a university or research subscription you can access the article, otherwise you will have to pay to access the article. One of the subscription sites is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18066116, which provides the abstract of the article.

Thanks to Paul @ Battle River Berries - www.haskapberries.com - for the link!