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Crowberry, Wild Mountain Bilberry

The light green twig of the crowberry with its black berries thrives on hilly crofts, marshes, even in the barren marshy forests and expanses of Lapland. The berries are shiny dark blue or black and they contain six to nine reddish-brown seeds. Wild crowberry grows in all of Finland. The sub-spieces of empetrum hermafroditum growing in the northern Finland has larger berries and a better crop. The season for crowberries starts in July and continues till the first snow.

The people of Lapland and the people of Northern Siberia have traditionally used the wild crowberry to prevent scurvy, overexertion and headaches. Tradition also claims the crowberry juice be healthy for the kidneys.

Wild crowberry contains a lot of vitamins and fibers. They are also rich in flavonoids, such as flavonoles and antocyans. In addition to promoting health, these components also give the berry its typical dark blue colour. These pigments are used in food industry as natural colours.

The skin of the berry contains flavonoids and other fenolic compounds. Therefore, it is important to use the whole berry with its skin and seeds. Many studies indicate that the fenolic compounds with heavy antioxidant features promote health. The compounds have been seen to counteract coronary thrombosis, cancer and infections.

Nutritive content of fresh lingonberry / 100 g:

Energy, kj	199
Energy, Kcal	48
Protein, g	0,6
Fat, g	0,5
Carbon hydrate, g	6,3
Nutritional fiber, g	5,3
Tiamine, (B1), mg	0,03
Vitamine C, mg	11
Natrium, mg	4
Potassium, mg	<0,1
Calcium, mg	11
Magnesium, mg	0,05

 

Nutritive content data: FINELI / and Ruoka-aineiden ravintosisältö, Kansaneläkelaitos, Helsinki, 1989