Honeyberry Health Research — What the Science Actually Says

We grow honeyberries (also called haskap) at Mega Family Farms in Lee, Illinois. Because we make health part of our story, we read the research ourselves — not just the English-language reviews, but the scientific literature from Japan, Russia, China, and Poland, where this berry has been studied and grown for decades. This page is what we found, graded honestly: what is proven, what is promising, and what nobody has actually shown yet.

First, what is in the berry

The strongest evidence for honeyberries is their composition — this part is not in dispute anywhere.

• Anthocyanins (the deep purple pigments): measured across hundreds of cultivars worldwide, roughly 150–650 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit. Between 79% and 92% of that is a single compound, cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G). In a head-to-head lab comparison of Saskatchewan-grown berries, honeyberries showed about three times the antioxidant capacity of cultivated blueberries and blackberries.

• Vitamin C: typically 44–89 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit — in the same range as oranges — varying by cultivar and harvest year.

• Iridoids: honeyberries are one of the few fruits rich in iridoid compounds (loganic acid and relatives, roughly 120–275 mg per 100 g). These are rare in fruit and are a big reason researchers are interested in this berry.

• Fiber: present, but modest — published values run about 2–4 g per 100 g. Some marketing claims a much higher number; the published data does not support it.•••

What human studies have found so far

Human research on honeyberries is real but young: two small pilot studies of honeyberry itself, plus two trials of blends that included it. That is the complete list, worldwide, as of late 2026.

  • Memory and blood pressure (pilot): In a double-blind crossover study of 20 adults aged 62–81, a single dose of honeyberry extract supplying 400 mg of anthocyanins lowered diastolic blood pressure and heart rate 1.5 hours later and improved word recall and recognition, compared with placebo. Smaller doses did not show the same effects. (Bell & Williams, 2019, University of Reading, UK)

  • Running performance: In a randomized trial, 30 male runners who took honeyberry powder for 6 days improved their time-to-exhaustion and ran a 5K time trial about 2% faster. (Howatson et al., 2022)

  • Eye health (blend): A Polish trial of 23 adults tested a capsule blending aronia, honeyberry, and bilberry; some measures of near vision and tear film improved. Because it was a blend, the effect cannot be credited to honeyberry alone. (Szumny et al., 2024)

  • Colds (blend): A Polish trial of 61 adults prone to upper-respiratory infections tested an echinacea, honeyberry, and aronia blend for 60 days; the blend group had fewer infections. Again, a blend — not honeyberry alone. (Zima et al., 2024)

    Larger trials are registered and underway, including a University of Manitoba study of honeyberry in women with hypertension, with results expected after 2026.

What animal and lab studies suggest

Most of the honeyberry literature is animal and cell research. It is consistent and interesting — and it is not proof of effects in people.

  • Post-meal metabolism: Purified honeyberry compounds blunted blood sugar and triglyceride spikes after meals in rats (Takahashi et al., 2014, Japan).

  • Blood lipids: Honeyberry anthocyanins and polyphenol extracts improved cholesterol and triglyceride profiles in rats on high-fat diets (Yu et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018, China).

  • Oxidative damage: Honeyberry extract reduced chemically induced kidney oxidative damage in rats, though a related berry, aronia, performed better in the same study (Takahashi et al., 2015, Japan).

  • Eye inflammation: A honeyberry extract suppressed experimentally induced eye inflammation (uveitis) in rats; interestingly, the isolated main pigment alone was weak — the whole extract worked better (Jin et al., 2006, Hokkaido University).

  • Honest counterpoint: In the one rat study that directly tracked blood pressure over six weeks, honeyberry did not significantly change it (Dayar et al., 2021, Slovakia).

What the research does NOT show

We think this section matters as much as the rest.

  • Blood flow: No published study — in any country — has directly measured blood flow, circulation, or blood-vessel function in people or animals after eating honeyberries. The idea is a reasonable guess from the berry’s chemistry, but as of today it is a guess, not a result.

  • The “lowers blood pressure 6–7%” claim: Versions of this claim circulate online in several languages. We traced it: it comes from a 2010 study of BLUEBERRIES (50 g of freeze-dried blueberry a day for 8 weeks), later copied onto honeyberry pages with the fruit’s name changed. There is no such honeyberry study.

  • Cancer, diabetes, dementia: All claims in these areas rest on cell cultures or animals. No human evidence exists yet.

Our promise: if we would not say it in front of the researchers, we will not put it on a label or in a video.

A note for growers and the curious (composition by the numbers)

Variety matters enormously. Chinese researchers profiling 61 northeast-China genotypes found fresh-fruit anthocyanins from 158 to 1,751 mg per 100 g — a tenfold spread. Russian research stations in Siberia (Bakchar) report fresh anthocyanins around 297–327 mg per 100 g and vitamin C up to about 70 mg per 100 g in their registered cultivars. Belarusian storage research found fresh honeyberries keep only about 10–11 days refrigerated, losing 20–40% of their vitamin C in the first 8 days — which is why our harvest goes to the cooler fast. (Our own plantings are the Boreal series from the University of Saskatchewan program — Boreal Blizzard, Boreal Beauty, and Boreal Beast.)

Sources

The studies behind this page. Links open the original papers or their records.

  1. Rupasinghe HPV et al. 2018. Haskap (Lonicera caerulea): a review. Journal of Functional Foods 44:24–39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2018.02.023

  2. Kucharska AZ et al. 2017. Phenolic compounds and iridoids in 30 honeysuckle cultivars/genotypes. Molecules 22(3):405. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22030405 (Note: the paper’s tables are the reliable values; its abstract conflicts with them.)

  3. Rupasinghe HPV et al. 2012. Antioxidant capacity of Saskatchewan-grown fruits. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 92:1311–1317. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4141/cjps2012-073

  4. Bell L, Williams CM. 2019. A pilot dose-response study of the acute effects of haskap berry extract. European Journal of Nutrition 58:3325–3334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-1877-9

  5. Howatson G et al. 2022. Haskap berry supplementation and running performance. Nutrients 14(4):780. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14040780

  6. Bora P et al. 2024. Cardiometabolic potential of haskap: systematic review. Antioxidants 13(6):694. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox13060694

  7. Takahashi A et al. 2014. Haskap phytochemicals inhibit postprandial hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia in rats. Journal of Oleo Science 63(3):201–209.

  8. Takahashi A et al. 2015. Aronia and haskap extracts vs potassium bromate-induced renal damage in rats. Nippon Shokuhin Kagaku Kogaku Kaishi 62(5):235–241. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3136/nskkk.62.235

  9. Jin XH et al. 2006. Haskap extract and endotoxin-induced uveitis in rats. Experimental Eye Research 82:860–867. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exer.2005.10.024

  10. Tanaka T, Tanaka A. 1998. Composition and characteristics of haskap fruit. Nippon Shokuhin Kagaku Kogaku Kaishi 45(2):129–133. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3136/nskkk.45.129

  11. Dayar E et al. 2021. Haskap berries in obese Zucker rats. Antioxidants 10:1199. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081199

  12. Yu W et al. 2018. Haskap anthocyanins and blood lipids in rats. Food Science 39(13):205–210. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7506/spkx1002-6630-201813030

  13. Liu S et al. 2018. Lonicera caerulea polyphenols and cholesterol metabolism. Food Research International 107:73–83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2018.02.016

  14. Fan L et al. 2023. Anthocyanin profiling of 61 northeast-China genotypes. Food Chemistry 403:134391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134391

  15. Pakusina AP et al. 2024. Bakchar honeysuckle cultivars, biochemical composition. Vestnik MGTU 27(3):373–384. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21443/1560-9278-2024-27-3-373-384

  16. Rupasova ZhA et al. 2025. Biochemical changes in blue honeysuckle fruit during cold storage. Plodovodstvo (Belarus) 37:289+.

  17. Szumny A et al. 2024. Aronia–haskap–bilberry blend and presbyopia. Nutrients 16:926.

  18. Zima K et al. 2024. Echinacea–haskap–aronia blend and upper-respiratory infections. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 25:13436.

  19. Basu A et al. 2010. Blueberries decrease cardiovascular risk factors in obese men and women. Journal of Nutrition 140(9):1582–1587. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.110.124701 — Listed so readers can check our work: this is the BLUEBERRY study behind the misattributed blood-pressure claim above. It is not a honeyberry study.

We will update this page as new research appears — especially the human trials now underway. Questions about our honeyberries, or want first access to the June harvest? Visit megafamilyfarms.com/honeyberries and join the list.