White Mulberry Benefits
Morus alba
Native to Turkey
Fruit, leaves
White Mulberry is used in its different parts. The fruit is eaten as a food and has many health benefits namely as an anti-oxident, and in the prevention of heart disease. It is the white mulberry leaf that is powdered and used traditionally in Chinese medicine to tonify the blood, and treat diabetes.
The white mulberry fruit is an anti-oxidant, and it is high in vitamin C, iron, potassium and magnesium. The active phytochemical in White Mulberry is resveratrol, this is also found in red wine grapes. It is thought to improve endurance, and to act as an anti-coagulant so it has been suggested that mulberries like red wine can have a positive effect in controlling heart disease and maintaining a healthy heart.
Mulberries can be eaten as a snack, or they can be added to other fruits and seeds as a trail mix. They make excellent additions to cereal or muesli, or as a topping to a desert of fruit and yogurt. Dried white Mulberries are chewy like figs, and very sweet and delicious. They can form part of a balanced diet providing a source of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and anti-oxidents.
They can be eaten liberally, as there is no upper dosage.
Mulberries have been highly valued since Roman times. The white mulberry features in early Greek folklore in " Pyramus and Thisbe" by Ovid. The lovers secretly elope and plan to meet under a white mulberry tree, however Thisbe arrives only to find a lion, so she runs and hides. When Pyramus comes along he sees only the lion and Thisbe's cloak, fearing the worst Pyramus impails himself on his sword and the white mulberry tree become red. Thisbe comes along and does the same, thus this tragic story is told as the story of how the Red mulberry tree was created.
Nowadays white mulberries are largely cultivated to feed silkworms in the silkworm industry.
White Mulberries consist of water, carbohydrate, protein, fatty acids, namely linoleic, stearic, and oleic acids and dietary fibre.
None known.
