The Latest Beauty Rage? Acai

It comes from the dense lushness of the Amazon rain forest. It tastes like a chocolaty blueberry. And even though it's tiny (smaller than a grape), it carries a nutritional wallop that makes it the Popeye of fruits so strong it can punch your sluggish body into fighting shape. It's the acai berry, the fruit of the acai palm tree native to Brazil.

If you're not familiar with acai (pronounced ah-sigh-EE), get ready to hear a lot about it in pop culture. Called one of the world's most nutritious and powerful foods (Dr. Nicholas V. Perricone, an expert in nutrition and anti-inflammatory diet, names the acai fruit the world's No. 1 superfood in his best-seller "The Perricone Promise"), the small, purple berry has started to make a big name for itself. Like pomegranate, which created a juggernaut several years ago, and the goji berry (like acai, a rich source of antioxidants), acai is the new darling of the health and wellness industry.

Acai now can be found in a number of drinks and smoothies, sorbets and nutritional supplements. But it also recently has jumped from the supermarket aisles to the beauty counters with new products that put the berry's powers to use.

"It's just started to be realized and uncovered," Jeremiah McElwee, a spokesman for Whole Foods, which carries a variety of acai products in its food and Whole Body aisles. "It's one of those ingredients that has so many values that it will continue to become more ubiquitous."

Why? Because the food and beauty industries have only begun to tap acai. The berry is one of nature's most perfect energy fruits. The berry's pulp is rich in antioxidants (more than blueberries and pomegranates), healthy omega fats, dietary fiber, protein and amino acid complex vital to muscle regeneration. Antioxidants are responsible for the prevention of cellular damage which can lead to cancer and heart disease.

That's precisely why acai has found its way into energy drinks and now is an active ingredient in beauty treatments for the skin.

"It's a growing thing. We started to see it in skin care, hair care and makeup," said Patricia Tortolani, senior editor at Allure magazine. "As a rule of thumb, the things that work orally like juices and supplements can also work topically. By ingesting it, it eventually gets to the skin. By applying it topically you're guaranteeing it gets to the skin."

The beauty end of acai is taking off. The company BORBA, a leader in antioxidant treatments, has several skin treatments containing acai. Fresh, an innovative beauty company, will launch an age-delaying body cream loaded with acai in January. The cosmetics company Tarte put acai in a line of lip gloss. And HC Color, a hair color and care system, uses acai in its conditioner.

"We like to embrace the next new thing but now, more than ever, women are more aware of what they're putting on their skin," Tortolani said. "When an ingredient comes along that's touted as being powerful and natural, that's the perfect combination.

McElwee said that even as acai's health benefits are only starting to enjoy the limelight, Whole Foods is working to bring the next generation of super fruits to the marketplace. "Goji is still on the rise but there's another fruit called mangosteen and it's finding it's way. And noni [the fruit of a shrub native to Southeast Asia]," said McElwee, senior Whole Body coordinator, global purchasing team.

He said about three or four new fruits from South America are just waiting to be plucked as the new super fruits. "We're always finding new things," he said. "It's exciting."

Contact Greg Morago at gmorago@courant.com.

Source: The Hartford Courant, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Powered by Yellowbrix.