Health Benefits of Eating Sea Buckthorn Berries
Sea buckthorn or seaberry is packed with nutrients. The super fruit is famous for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and regenerative properties. Its health advantages include healing of wound, vaginal mucositis, heart diseases, ulcers, burns, acne and other skin related problems.
- Seaberry is an excellent source of essential fatty acids, especially omega-7 and others like omega-3, 6 and 9. Research has found that these fatty acids are significantly beneficial to heart health and capable of lowering the risk of stroke and heart attack.
- The fruit contains substantial amount of flavonoids that heal cancer patients fast from the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
- The combination of both essential fatty acids and flavonoids in sea buckthorn increase the HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) in the body and effectively reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
- This wonderful fruit is loaded with vitamin A and vitamin E, which have anti-aging effects and are useful in reducing the wrinkles on your skin. The vitamin A alone is a powerful antioxidant vitamin that is able to protect the mucus membranes and enhance your skin.
- Seaberry is also high in vitamin C, a potent antioxidant vitamin that improves your body’s immune system. Together with vitamin E, they have therapeutic effects in relieving muscle tension and getting rid of low-energy conditions due to fatigue.
- This super fruit promotes gastrointestinal health. Experiments done on mice have proven that sea buckthorn oil from both the seed and pulp help cure gastric ulcers.
- Sea buckthorn has an abundance of anti-inflammatory agents, including salycins and quercetin. With the aid of essential fatty acids, they form a natural remedy to fight off acne problems.
- Studies have found that sea buckthorn extracts are great in treating hypertension. It could be contributed by the rich fatty acid content in the fruit.
- This healthful fruit is said to provide organic lubricant to menopausal women to prevent vaginal dryness.
- Besides the above health properties, sea buckthorn also contains palmitoleic acid. The compound is said to assist in healing wounds and burns.
Facts about Sea Buckthorn
Sea buckthorn or seaberry (scientific name Hippophae rhamnoides) is a plant which yields yellow to orange berries. The 6-8 mm fruit can stay on the trees throughout the entire winter. Sea buckthorn grows to 2-5 m tall. The leaves of sea buckthorn are narrow with silver-grey color. The little, yellow flowers blossom in spring, before the leaves. Both female and male sea buckthorn shrubs are required to produce the berries.
The leaves of sea buckthorn are often used to make sea buckthorn leaf tea while the berries are made into sea buckthorn juice, jellies and marmalade.
Sea buckthorn is commonly used for land reclamation as well as to stop soil erosion due to its extensive roots and its capability to fix nitrogen as well as other nutrients.
Sea Buckthorn Nutrition Facts
| Nutritional Value of Sea Buckthorn |
| Vitamin C (in 100 g berries) |
600-2500 mg |
| Vitamin E (in 100 g berries) |
160 mg |
| Carotene (in 100 g berries) |
30-40 mg |
| Essential Fatty Acids (in 100 g berries) |
6-11 % |
| Flavonoids (in 100 g dried leaves) |
14 g |
| Organic Acids |
3.9 % |
| Soluble Sugars |
13 % |
| Oil in Juice and Seeds |
3-8 % |
Sea Buckthorn Berry Recipe
Homemade Sea Buckthorn Juice
- Keep the sea buckthorn berries in a sealed freezer bag in the freezer for 8 hours.
- Remove the berries and thaw. Press out the juice of the cold berries using a fruit mill.
- Remove the seeds halfway through and continue to press until the juice is fully extracted.
- You may sweeten it with honey or sugar before drinking.
Sea Buckthorn Side Effects
Adverse reactions from consuming sea buckthorn are extremely rare. The most common would be a little queasiness when consuming in a very high quantity.
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