Sugar Apple (Fruit): Useful Properties and Caloric Value

Sugar apple - a fruit comes from tropical America and the West Indies. Spanish traders once brought him to Asia, where the old Mexican name "annona" can still be found in various eastern languages in an adapted form - Bengali Ata, Nepal Aathl, Burmese Aayya and Philippine attis. It is also known as a cream apple in the Philippines.

What is a sugar apple (photo below)

The fruits of this culture are round conical in shape, 5-10 cm in diameter and 6-10 cm in length. On average, one sugar apple weighs 100-240 grams. The fruit has a thick skin, consisting of knotty segments. Color, as a rule, varies from pale green to blue-green, with dark pink spots in some varieties. Inside, the fruit is divided into segments that become pronounced during the ripening period.

What is the fruit of the taste?

Annonia's pulp is fragrant and sweet, can be from creamy white to light yellow color. Its consistency and taste resemble a custard. Hard, shiny seeds can be brown or black. Their number on average is 20-30 pieces per fetus. Today there are varieties of annona, which almost do not have bones.

Where does this fruit grow

This culture is a tree that grows naturally in the tropics of South America, and is now grown in many regions around the world, from China to Africa. Without loss of fruit quality, the plant can grow in any tropical and subtropical areas, on different types of soils, is moderately resistant to drought. This flexibility allows him to feel great on five continents. The most intensively annonu is grown in India, where more than a dozen cultivars have been allocated by horticulturists.

Varieties and hybrids

Among the most famous Indian subspecies, one can distinguish a red annona, which is distinguished by a dark pink peel and a more unpleasant taste. The sugar content in these fruits is the least. The yellow sugar apple, on the contrary, has a rich sweet taste, its pulp is white and very soft.

The seedless "Cuban" sugar apple was first introduced in the state of Florida in 1955, when a very scarce crop of slightly deformed fruits with simple remains of undeveloped seeds was obtained. The taste of annona was less attractive than that of normal fruits, but it multiplied vegetatively and actively spread as a progressive novelty. Another type of seedless fruit was bred from Brazil at about the same time. Today these varieties have undergone some evolution, and their taste has been seriously improved.

Currently, new varieties are being created, mainly in Taiwan. Atemoya (pineapple apple) or a hybrid of cherimoya and sugar apple is popular in some Asian regions, despite the fact that it was first introduced to the United States in 1908. The fruit for sweetness and consistency resembles a sugar apple, but has a completely different taste - as the name suggests, very similar to the taste of pineapple. The location of the seeds is also different - in atemoya they are in spaced apart segments, that is, the flesh does not contain seeds.

Toxic feature

Sugar apple is a popular sweet fruit in many tropical regions. However, it can also be used as a natural pesticide. When you eat a sugar apple, you need to carefully harvest the seeds, which are usually abundant, because they are toxic when ingested.

Oil obtained from seeds proved to be as effective as conventional pesticides when eliminating various pests of agricultural crops. It can be used to protect plants such as tomatoes, melons, soybeans in greenhouse conditions. In addition, subsequent tests have shown that the toxic substance remains so no more than two days, and completely inactive after eight days. This same feature allows the use of seed powder in some countries as an agent for the treatment of pediculosis.

As the sugar apple growing areas expanded, this plant was planted along with other crops, providing natural pesticides and enriching the local crop with a wide variety. Annona may in fact be more than just a tropical snack.

How is it eaten?

Since the pulp is very tender and juicy, a sugar apple (a fruit that can be seen in this article), you can eat just by spitting out seeds that have accidentally entered your mouth. In Malaysia, fruits are often wiped through a sieve, and later they consume juice with pulp. In addition, puree from a sugar apple is added to ice cream or milk, resulting in a very attractive dessert. The flesh of the fruits of the annona is never subjected to heat treatment.

Sugar apple (fruit) - useful properties

One hundred grams of ripe fruit contains 88.9-95.7 calories, which is very much. Due to this energy value, as well as the high content of other useful substances (for 100 grams of pulp of iron - 0.28-1.34 mg, phosphorus 23.6-55.3 mg, calcium - 19.4-44.7 mg), this fruit is recommended for people who need enhanced nutrition. In addition, a sugar apple from the tropics is rich in vitamins - carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid (34.7-42.2 mg).

Other uses

Seed kernels contain 14-49% of an oil whitish or yellowish color, having a saponification index of 186.40. For this reason, it was proposed as a substitute for peanut butter in the production of soap. In addition, it can be rendered harmless from toxins by alkaline treatment and then used for food purposes.

The leaves of the plant also give an excellent oil enriched with terpenes and sesquiterpenes (predominantly B-karyophyllene), which finds limited use in perfumery, giving a woody-spicy accent to smells.

The fiber that is extracted from the bark of the tree can be used to produce ropes.

Drug use

In India, in folk medicine, it is considered effective to smell crushed annonia leaves to overcome hysteria and fainting. They are also applied to ulcers and wounds, and a decoction of leaves is taken in cases of dysentery.

In the whole of tropical America, decoction from the leaves of one annona or in combination with other plants is used as a means of stimulating menstruation, as well as an antipyretic, tonic, cooling agent. Useful for such a decoction for the digestive system, and as a diuretic natural drug.

Outer broth from the leaves is also used in baths to relieve rheumatic pains.

The green immature fruit of a sugar apple is very tart, and it is applied against diarrhea in El Salvador. In India, the crushed ripe fruit mixed with salt is applied to the tumors.

The bark and roots of the plant are very astringent. Decoction of the bark of Annona is given as a tonic, and also as a cure for diarrhea. The root, because of its strong laxative effect, is introduced as a radical treatment for dysentery and other similar diseases.