Haskap is a fruit bush originating from Kamchatka, and is also known as blue berry honey suckle (Lonicera caerulea). It has been highly regarded for its pro-health properties in Japan for decades, cultivated in Canada for 10 years and on an industrial scale in Poland for a few years. The bushes, thanks to their origin, are resistant to varying and challenging climate conditions, and cope especially well with spring frost. They are long-life plants, even living up to 40 years and still giving fruits.

Haskap starts vegetation very early, even in March. By April it is blooming in full, with white, long flowers collected in bunches, from which fruits develope at the end of May and beginning of June. The harvest takes about 2 weeks. Berries are longitudinal, oval, blue with velvet skin, and have a very rich sweet and sour flavour combining notes of blueberry, blackberry, blackcurrant and raspberry. This is an unusual fusion unprecedented in other fruits.

The berries in their fresh state have the best taste, but making juice or jam allows them to be enjoyed for longer, or they can be frozen and used for making delicious milk-based smoothies or cocktails for a whole year.

Haskap fruits are very rich in bioactive compounds, polyphenols such us: anthocyanins -majority cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, phenolic acids - majority chlorogenic acid, flavonols and flavons -majority luteolin, quercetin, and catechins. In spite of this, iridoids, very rarely present in fruits, have also been recently found in the berries.

They are a source of vitamin C, provitamins: A, B1, B2, B6, B9, P and minerals: calcium, magnesium, potassium.

The most valuable bioactive substances that are contained in berries are polyphenolics, more specifically anthocyanins – a pigment that gives them their black colour. The anthocyanins content in haskap fruits is several times higher than in vegetables or well-known fruits and reaches in Polish cultivars from 1240 to 3510 mg on 100 g of fresh berries.

Many studies prove that anthocyanins have a much higher antioxidant potential than more well‑known reference antioxidants such us vit. E, β‑karoten or vit. C. Their free radicals removal activity is much potentiated by accompanying iridoids.

The consumption of food rich in anthocyanins is connected with a lower mortality rate from civilization diseases.Those compounds act as an antiatherogenic, lower oxidative stress, remove free radicals and mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy.