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Fruits  Stone Fruits |
STONE
FRUITS
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The stone fruits are those which includes the following fruits and they are the drupes of genus Prunus. |
Apricot
o
The apricot originated in northeastern
China near the Russian border, not
in Armenia as the scientific name
suggests. It did arrive in Armenia
after moving through central Asia,
which took about 3,000 years. The
Romans brought it into Europe through
Anatolia about 70 BC, with the name
"a praecox," significant
of its earliness . While English settlers
brought the apricot to the English
colonies in the New World, most of
modern American production of apricots
comes from the seedlings carried to
the west coast by Spanish Missionaries.
Turkey provides 85 percent of the
world's dried apricot and apricot
kernels today.
o
Medicinal and
non-food uses
Cyanogenic glycosides (found in most
stone fruit seeds, bark, and leaves)
are found in high concentration in
apricot seeds. The drug laetrile,
a purported treatment for cancer,
is extracted from apricot seeds. As
early as AD 502 apricot seeds were
used to treat tumors and in the 17th
century apricot oil was used in England
against tumors and ulcers. Seeds of
the apricot grown in central Asia
and around the Mediterranean are so
sweet that they may be substituted
for almonds. Oil expressed from these
varieties has been used as cooking
oil.
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Cherry, sweet, sour, and wild species
o A cherry is both a tree and its fleshy fruit, a type known as a drupe with a single hard pit enclosing
the seed. The cherry belongs to the
family Rosaceae, genus Prunus (along
with almonds, peaches, plums, and
apricots).
o Sweet and sour cherries are different
species, P. avium and P. cerasus,
respectively. Both species originate
in Europe and western Asia, with major
commercial orchards extending from
Iberia east to Asia Minor; they are
also grown to a smaller extent north
to the British Isles and southern
Scandinavia.
o
As well as the fruit, cherries also
have attractive flowers, and they
are commonly planted for their flower
display in spring. Some flowering
cherry trees (known as 'ornamental
cherries') have the stamens replaced
by additional petals ("double"
flowers), so are sterile and do not
bear fruit. They are grown purely
for their blossom and decorative value.
The Japanese sakura, in particular,
is a national symbol celebrated in
the yearly Hanami festival.
o
Cherries have a very short fruiting
season. In Australia, they are usually
at their peak around Christmas time,
and in the UK they are generally ready
for picking in early summer. Annual
world production (as of 2003) of cherries
is about 3 million tonnes (one third
are sour cherries).
o
Cherry blossom is sometimes eaten
by the larva of the Green Pug moth. |
Plumo
In the variety of the plum,there are
several domestic and wild species;
dried plums are called prunes.
o
A plum is a stone-fruit tree in the
genus Prunus. Its fruit is sweet,
juicy and edible, and it can be eaten
fresh or used in jam-making or other
recipes. Plum juice can be fermented
into plum wine; when distilled, this
produces a brandy known in Eastern
Europe as Slivovitz. Dried plums are
known as prunes. Prunes are sweet
and juicy, and they have a very high
dietary fiber content, so prune juice
is often used to help regulate the
functioning of the digestive system.
It also contains several antioxidants
that may slow aging. Prune marketers
in the United States have, in recent
years, begun marketing their product
as "dried plums", because
"prunes" has negative connotations
of being unappetizing, and suitable
only for the elderly.
o
Plums come in a wide variety of colours
and sizes. Some are much firmer-fleshed
than others and some have yellow,
white, green or red flesh, with equally
varying skin colour.
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Peach
o This is of the normal and white variety
and its variant the nectarine .
o The peach is a tree,
Prunus persica, and the juicy fruit
that it bears, which has a single
large seed encased in hard wood (called
the pit or stone), yellow or whitish
flesh, a delicate aroma, and a velvety
skin. Peaches, along with cherries,
plums, and apricots, are stone fruits
(drupes). Cultivated peaches are divided
into freestone and clingstone varieties,
depending on whether the flesh sticks
to the pit; both kinds can be any
color. Peaches with white flesh typically
are very sweet with little acid flavor,
while yellow-fleshed peaches typically
have an acidic tang coupled with sweetness.
Both colors often have some red on
their skin. Low-acid white-fleshed
peaches are the most popular kinds
in China, Japan, and neighboring Asian
countries, while Europeans and North
Americans have historically favored
the acidic, yellow-fleshed kinds.
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Nectarineo
The nectarine is a variant of peach
that has a fuzzless skin. Though grocers
treat fuzzy peaches and nectarines
as different fruits, they belong to
the same species. Nectarines have
arisen many times from fuzzy peaches,
often as bud sports.
o Nectarines can be
white, yellow, clingstone, or freestone.
Regular peach trees occasionally produce
a few nectarines, and vice versa.
Nectarines are more easily damaged
than fuzzy peaches. The history of
the nectarine is unclear; the first
recorded mention is from 1616 in England,
but they had probably been grown very
much earlier in central Asia.
oThe
Pome Fruits
oThe Berry Fruits |
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Special fruits for this week
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