Kakadu Plum: The Most Vitamin C-Dense Fruit on Earth

Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana), known as gubinge to the Nyul Nyul people of the Dampier Peninsula and murunga to the Kunwinjku of Arnhem Land, grows in the open woodlands of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and Queensland. It contains up to 100 times more vitamin C than an orange — the highest natural concentration of ascorbic acid in any fruit on Earth (up to 5,300mg per 100g of fresh fruit, compared to 53mg per 100g for orange). Aboriginal Australians used it as a food, an antiseptic, and a treatment for colds and infections for thousands of years.

A small pale green fruit, about the size of a walnut, with fibrous flesh and a single large seed. The flavour is intensely tart — astringent, citric, with a stewed apple quality. Most people find it too sour to eat raw in quantity; it is at its best when processed into powder, paste, jam, or as an acidulant in other preparations.

• Sumac in Levantine cooking (tart acidulant with tannin depth), amchur (dried mango powder) in Indian cooking (fruit-derived acid for finishing), yuzu in Japanese cooking (citrus used as both acid and
• Kakadu plum operates in the same functional space as all three

Kakadu plum, finger lime, and lemon myrtle together form the "Australian acid trinity" — three entirely endemic citrus/acid sources that, combined, replicate the full acid spectrum that other cuisines build from lemons, limes, vinegar, and tamarind.