This is a video of a very old jujube planting in China. I’m posting this primarily because jujube trees don’t seem to get much respect in the US. The oldest trees in this planting are 1300 years old and they are huge. Jujube fruit is well liked and widely consumed in China and considered to be very healthy with benefits for the liver and other internal organs. The fruit has one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in any fruit (about 10 times as much as an orange). When people ask me which fruit I consume the most of every year, it’s always jujubes, and it’s not even close. I don’t even eat them for the health benefits. I just eat them because I like them. I like them better than any prunus species, better than figs, better than apples, better than persimmons, better than bananas, mangoes, pears and many others as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS6X2b1_nl4
Just a word of caution, when unripe the fruits also contains cyanide as do the leaves. However, I agree with you that it is an underappreciated fruit. I’m growing the “Li” cultivar.
I just realized…I am eating a jujube while reading your post and watching the video…Jujubes have my deepest respect.
Very good point Richard. Luckily they are usually pretty inedible until ripe.
respect given
Loved seeing the trees! Thanks!
taste is subjective, and admittedly find many tropical fruits better-tasting than jujubes.
But among temperate-climate/deciduous trees, i’d agree that jujus seem to be more addictive than any other fruit being grown in temperate usa. Juju fruits are not the juiciest, and not the most fragrant/intensely flavored, but for some reason couldn’t resist eating them in large quantities. So much more than would eat apples or peaches.
i too liked to eat them with little knowledge of their health benefits. Did a bit of research later which made me like them even more. Below is just one report(of many) indicating jujus being head and shoulders above conventional fruits in antioxidant activity. On the second page of the pdf shows jujus being second only to cornelian cherries, with jujus having ~twice the antioxidant activity of prunus cherries and blackberries, ~4X the antioxidant activity of peaches, and ~10X the antioxidant activity of apples.
Reported by an academe, and not by WebMD.
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/45/9/1341.full.pdf
incidentally @Richard, you’ve associated jujubes with cyanide at least twice in this forum, and would really appreciate to see your source of info. Is it because jujubes, being stone fruits and being fairly-related to peaches and cherries which have cyanide in their pits? Below is a transcript of perhaps the most extensive and intensive study of the chinese jujube as a species. From genome sequencing, to vitamin-C concentration/sugar concentration, chitinase, autophagy proteins, etc, but there’s no mention of cyanide. Have searched high and low for any other leads, but so far none, so would really appreciate if you post your source, even if just a tangential association with cyanide.
In the past, years ago, I ran across a reference to cyanide in connection with unripe jujube fruit, but I just searched this morning and could not find anything. In the process of looking for it though, it’s amazing how many new articles I ran across discussing jujube health benefits.
Yeah, have been looking for any association. Many fruits and vegies have cyanide, i guess they are not brought up much since amounts are insignificant.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf00097a002?journalCode=jafcau
speaking of tangential association-- i found this funny phonetic association while doing my research. The species Jojoba(instead of jujube, and not in the same family nor in the same order) being cyanogenic. It is used as appetite suppressant.