Kakadu plum (also called the Gubinge, Billygoat Plum or Murunga) is a small deciduous tree found growing wild extensively through out the subtropical woodlands of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It bears abundant crop of small plum-like fruits.
The fruit has a very high content of vitamin C, in fact holds the World Record. It’s full of antioxidants, folic acid and iron.
A slender, small to medium sized deciduous tree with creamy-grey flaky bark, the light green leaves are very large and oval-shaped, up to 25cm long and 15cm wide, and are spirally arranged and crowded towards the ends of the branches. The flowers are small, creamy-white, perfumed, and borne along spikes in the leaf axils towards the ends of the branches. The fruit is oval, 3 cm long and 1 cm wide, shaped like almonds and containing a large seed; yellow when ripe, soft and easy to harvest.
The greatest use of kakadu plum fruits is for gourmet jams, sauces, juices, ice-cream, cosmetics, flavours and pharmaceuticals.
The Australian aboriginal people pound the fruit and use it as an antiseptic and a soothing balm for aching limbs.
The fruit has been a traditional source of bush tucker, antiseptic and a healing remedy for the Indigenous people across Arnhem Land for thousands of years. Today the trees are still in great abundance and come to fruit usually at the start of the dry season in May each year.