Acai: Una Palma de Fruta Extraordinaria Rica en Antioxidantes

SPANISH VERSION: Dr. Schauss discovery of a previously little known palm fruits remarkable antioxidant activity, led to publication in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that confirmed it had the highest peroxyl radical scavenging activity of any food in the world. Since his discovery numerous authors have referred to it as a *super food.* In this book, the author details the pathway to discovery and recounts the findings of numerous laboratories that collaborated in studying this fruit, now known worldwide as Acai. The impact of the authors discovery has led to government protection of millions of acres of palm trees in the delicate rain forest of Amazonia. Today over 400,000 liters of acai is consumed a day by nearly 1.2 million inhabitants that live in the floodplains of the Amazon River near Belem, owing to the growing body of information about its nutritional content and antioxidant activity. In addition, it has become a major export food of Brazil and resulted in one of the fastest growing network marketing companies in the world. However, not all acai products are the same; many contain a fraction of the antioxidant activity of a proprietary freeze-dried acai that has been the subject of extensive research by numerous scientists and laboratories.