Phytochemical and nutritional properties of underutilised fruits in the southern African region

The underutilised fruits including kei apple, cape gooseberry, marula and monkey orange are fruits widely found in the southern African region. These fruits have the potential to cut to the heart of Africa's great problems in rural development, hunger, malnutrition, and gender inequality. Kei apple, cape gooseberry, marula and monkey orange trees are drought resistant or tolerant plants. Therefore, the domestication of the underutilised fruits found in the southern African region could be considered to be a sustainable solution to enhance the fruit availability, thereby increasing the food security since the global warming currently affects the food production. The fruits are rich in macronutrients, micronutrients, and dietary phytochemicals and have several health benefits. Despite this and the existence of a broad and unlimited niche in terms of the use of these fruits in new product development (food products, medicinal products, etc.), they are mainly processed on a small scale for the production of a few food products. This review also covers food product development from these fruits based on their functional characteristics.