Cultivation of Bush Tomato (Solanum centrale): Desert Raisin.
Cultivation of Bush Tomato (Solanum centrale): Desert Raisin. Book Section
Australian Native Plants: Cultivation and Uses in the Health and Food Industries.
- Author(s): Lee, L.S.
- Secondary Author(s): Sultanbawa Y., Sultanbawa F.
- Published: 2016
- Publisher: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group
- ISBN: 978-1-4822-5714-4
Abstract: Solanum centrale is a small Australian native plant adapted to arid environments which has a timeless tradition of use by Aboriginal peoples. In recent years, it has been incorporated in Australian bush food cuisine for its piquant flavour when used as a condiment in cooking and a flavouring in processed products. The fresh or dried fruit, although eaten in remote Aboriginal communities, is never sold for consumption as a whole fruit in commercial marketplaces. The flavour is considered by most to be rather acrid to be eaten whole in anything but small quantities, although as a flavouring ingredient, it imparts an attractive zest to food products. When used in processed products such as sauces, chutneys and dukkah, the S. centrale fruit content rarely exceeds 10%. Commercially, the term ‘bush tomato’ has been adopted for marketing purposes, although the correct common name is ‘desert raisin’; confusingly, the term ‘bush tomato’ officially pertains to several different edible species (Solanum chippendalei, S. diversiflorum, S. cleistogamum, S. coactiliferum and S. esuriale) and even one toxic species (S. quadriloculatum), but not to S. centrale (Latz, 1999). Of the thirteen main commercialized Australian native plant product species (including bush foods, flavourings and oils), Clarke (2012) ascertained that bush tomato was second only in production to the lemon myrtle industry; nonetheless, the total recorded farm-gate value in the year surveyed was little more than $0.5 M (AUD).