:: CarobHouse ::

Carob is the fruit of Ceratonia siliqua, a native tree of the Eastern Mediterranean area. The name carob comes from the Arabic word al kharoubah.
Carob is a large (10-20 centimeters long) dried eatable bean-like pod, sweet, and dark brown colour in its ripe state, which takes about a year. Inside the carob pods are tiny beans. These beans, uniform in weight and size, were once used Middle East merchants to evaluate jewels

and precious stones trading, thus the word "carat". Today, these beans are used in the food industry to produce lacust bean gum, a stabiliser and thickener in foods. The carob pods themselves are roasted and ground into carob powder, which may be used as a substitute for cocoa. The powder from the carob pod, however, differs significantly from cocoa in sugar and fat content. Whereas cocoa may contain up to 23% fat and 5% sugar, carob has only 0.7% fat and a natural sugar content of 38 a 45%. [ranging from 38% to 45%?]

Carob is a healthy food product with a high nutritional value. It contains as much vitamin B1 as aspargus or strawberries, the same amount of niacin as lima beans, lentils or peas, and more vitamin A than eggplant, aspargus and beets. It is also high in vitamin B2, calcium, magnesium and iron, with a correct balance of potassium and sodium.

Carob has none of the allergy-producing antibodies nor the caffeine stimulant teobromine found in the cocoa bean. Despite of its high content of natural sugars, carob is low in calories, due to its low content of lipids and high content of natural fibre. It has a beneficial effect on the intestinal flora by protecting the intestinal mucous membrane, reducing significantly the incidence of unspecific diarrhoeas, nutritional disorders, and ulcers.

Recent studies show that carob does not introduce gluten into the diet and does have antioxidant properties. It reduces effectively the excess of cholesterol ingested daily, in fact its hypocholesterol power is double that of other fibers.

Moisture		1 - 4 %
Crude protein		4 - 5 %
Raw Fibre		4 - 6 %
Total Sugars		38 - 45 %
	Sucrose	30 - 34 %
	Glucose	5 - 6 %
	Fructose	4 - 5.5 %
Other Carbohydrates (NDF)		34 - 37 %
Fat		0.4 - 0.6 %
Ash		2.5 - 3.5 %
	Calcium	0.3 - 0.4 %
	Sodium	0.05 - 0.1 %
	Phosphorus	0.05 - 0.07 %
	Potassium	1.2 - 1.4 %
	Magnesium	0.02 - 0.03 %
pH		5.5