TROPICAL FRUITS

Tropical fruit grow on plants of all habitats. The only characteristic that they share is an intolerance of frost.

Akee

v The Akee (Blighia sapida) is a member of the Sapindaceae (soapberry family), native belongs to tropical West Africa. It is also related to the Leeches and Longan, and is an evergreen tree that always grows about 10 meters tall, with a short trunk and the dense crown. The leaves are leathery, compound, 15-30 cm long, with 6-10 called elliptical obovate-oblong leaflets, each leaflet 8-12 cm long and 5-8 cm broad. The real flowers are either male or bisexual, are white and the fragrant. Fruit is the pear-shaped, bright red to yellow-orange, and when ripe, splits open to the reveal three large, shiny black seeds, surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to the yellow flesh.

v The scientific name honors Captain William Bligh, of the HMAV Bounty who introduced the first fruit from West Africa (from present-day Guinea) to Caribbean islands, and specifically to Jamaica in year 1793. Since then it was a major feature of various Caribbean cuisines, and it was also cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas elsewhere around the beautiful world.

v Other names and different spellings include Ackee, Akee, Akee apple, Achee, or vegetable brain. The fruit of the Akee is not edible in the entire. It is only the fleshy arils around the seeds that are quite edible. The remainder of the fruit, including the seeds is poisonous. The fruit must only be picked up after the fruit has opened very naturally, and should be fresh and not overripe. Immature and overripe Akee fruit are also quite poisonous. The fruit, even when ripe, is an actual cause of Jamaican vomiting sickness, characterized by the vomiting and hypoglycemia.

v The oil of the akee arils contains many important nutrients, especially fatty acids. Ackee oil makes a important contribution to the diet of many Jamaicans.Salt cod and Akee is the national dish of Jamaica. Salt cod is sauteed with akee, pork fat, onions, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, garnished with crisp bacon and fresh tomatoes.

Banana

v Bananas will ripen very faster in fridges and cool places. That is why, for making banana bread, many people put bananas in the fridge to ripen sooner. Bananas come in number variety of sized and colors. The ripe fruit is easily peeled and eaten raw and also cooked. Depending upon variety and ripeness, the flesh can be starchy to the sweet, and firm to mushy. Unripe or ‘green’ plantains and bananas are actually used in cooking and are the staple starch of some tropical populations. While the original bananas contained rather large seeds, seedless and triploid varieties have also been selected for human consumption. These offshoots are known as followers of suckers in the trade, and one or two of them are source for the next stem of fruit the plant produces, because the plant is normally cut at the time of new harvest. A stem of bananas can weigh form between 30-50 kg, and they are usually carried on the shoulder.

v The commercial sweet varieties are most commonly eaten in the temperate countries (species Musa acuminate or the hybrid Musa x paradisiacal, a cultigens’) are imported in large quantities from the tropics, where they are very popular in part because they are available fresh year-round. In the global commerce, by far the most important of these banana cultivars is 'Cavendish', which accounts for the vast bulk of bananas exported outside of tropics fruits. Banana chips are a snack produced from the bananas. Bananas have also been used in the making for jam. However unlike other fruits, bananas have only recently been used to prepare juice and squashes. Despite of 85 percent water content, it has historically been difficult to extract juice from the fruit because when they are compressed, a banana simply turns to pulp. In 2004, scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India, patented a technique for extracting juice by treating banana pulp in the reaction vessel for four to six hours

v In addition to the fruits, the flower of the banana plant (also known as banana blossom or banana heart) is used in South-East Asian and Kerala (India) cooking, either served raw with dips or cooked in soups and curries. The tender core of the banana plant's trunk is also used, notably in Burmese and Kerala (India) cooking.

v Nutritional value and Dietary effects of Banana Besides being a good source of energy, banana is a rich source of potassium, and hence is highly recommended for patients suffering from high blood pressure.It is claimed that bananas have beneficial effect in the treatment of intestinal disorders, including diarrhoea (diarrhea). Bananas are unusual in that they work for constipation too. They contain mucilaginous bulking substances and are easy to digest. Other fruit which may also be good for intestinal conditions include mangoes, figs, pineapple, and papaya.

Breadfruit

v The breadfruit is a tree (and its fruit) native to the East Indian and Pacific islands, which has also been widely planted in tropical regions elsewhere. It was first collected and distributed by Lieutenant William Bligh as one of the botanical samples collected by HMS Bounty in the late 18th century.

v Breadfruit is an attractive shade tree, growing to a height of 20 m. The large, thick leaves are, on the same tree, almost entire to deeply cut into pinnate lobes. All parts of the tree yield latex, a milky juice. This latex is used for boat caulking. The trees are monoecious, i.e. with male and female flowers growing on the same tree. The male flowers emerge first, followed shortly afterwards by the female flowers, growing into a capitulum. These can be pollinated three days later. The pollinators are Old World fruit bats (family Pteropodidae). The compound false fruit develops from the swollen perianth and originates from 1,500-2,000 flowers. These are visible on the skin of the fruit as hexagon-like disks.

v It is one of the highest-yielding food plants, a single tree producing up to 800 or more fruits per season. The grapefruit-sized ovoid fruit have a rough surface, and each fruit is divided into many achenes, each achene surrounded by a fleshy perianth and growing on a fleshy receptacle. Some selectively-bred cultivars have seedless fruit.Breadfruits are a staple food in many tropical regions. They are very rich in starch, and before being eaten they are roasted, baked, fried or boiled. The taste is described as potato-like.

Coconut

v The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4-6 m long, with pinnae 60-90 cm long; old leaves fall cleanly leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut refers to the fruit of the coconut palm.

v Botanically, a coconut is a simple dry fruit known as a fibrous drupe (not a true nut). The husk (mesocarp) is composed of fibres called coir and there is an inner "stone" (the endocarp). This hard endocarp (the coconut as sold in the shops of non-tropical countries) has three germination pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface once the husk is removed. It is through one of these that the radicle emerges when the embryo germinates. When viewed on end, the endocarp and germination pores resemble the face of a monkey, the Portuguese word for which is coco.

v In some parts of the world, trained monkeys are used to harvest the coconut. Training schools for monkeys still exist in southern Thailand. Competitions are held each year to discover the fastest harvester.

v All parts of the coconut palm are useful, and the trees have a comparatively high yield (up to 75 "nuts" per year); it therefore has significant economic value. The name for the coconut palm in Sanskrit is kalpa vriksha, which translates as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life". In Malay, the coconut is known as pokok seribu guna, "the tree of a thousand uses".

Uses of the various parts of the palm include

v The white, fleshy part of the seed is edible and used fresh or dried (desiccated) in cooking.

v The cavity is filled with "coconut water" containing sugars which are used as a refreshing drink, and in the making of the gelatinous dessert Nata de Coco. Mature fruits have significantly less liquid than young coconuts. Coconut water is sterile until the coconut is opened (unless the coconut is spoiled).

v Coconut milk (which is approximately 17% fat) is made by processing grated coconut with hot water or hot milk which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds from the fibre.Coconut cream is what rises to the top when coconut milk is refrigerated and left to set. The leftover fibre from coconut milk production is used as livestock feed.The sap derived from incising the flower clusters of the coconut form a drink known as "toddy" or, in the Philippines, tuba.Apical buds of adult plants are edible and are known as "palm-cabbage" (though harvest of this kills the tree).

Jackfruit or Nangka

v The Jackfruit (Malay: nangka; Tagalog: langka; Portuguese: Jaca; taxonomic name Artocarpus heterophyllus) is a species of tree and its fruit, widely grown in Southeast-Asia and Brazil. The jackfruit is in the mulberry family Moraceae, and thought to be native to India and Bangladesh. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh.

v The Jackfruit bears fruit three years after planting and the fruit is the largest edible fruit in commerce. It is a sweet fruit that can be bought in the U.S. and Europe in shops that sell exotic products. The fruit is usually sold canned with a sugar syrup or can be obtained fresh from Asian markets. Sweet chips are also produced from it. The jackfruit or nangka fruit is used in Southeast Asian cuisine like Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes.

v The wood of the Jackfruit tree is sometimes used for the production of musical instruments that are part of the gamelan.

Mango

v The mango (Mangifera spp.; plural mangos or mangoes) is a genus of about 35 species of tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae, native to India and Indo-China, of which the Indian Mango M. indica is by far the most important commercially. Reference to mangos as the "food of the gods" can be found in the Hindu Vedas. The name of the fruit comes from the Tamil word man-kay, which was corrupted to manga by the Portuguese when they explored western India. The mango also features as a common motif, known as the paisley, in Indian textiles.

v The mango is now widely cultivated as a fruit tree in frost-free tropical and subtropical climates in North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, South and Central Africa, the Philippines and Australia. It is easily cultivated and now there are more than 1,000 cultivars, ranging from the turpentine mango (from the strong taste) to the huevos de toro, generally translated as "bull's testicles", from the shape and size. The mango is reputed to be the most commonly eaten fresh fruit worldwide. Mangos also readily naturalize in tropical climates. Some lowland forests in the Hawaiian Islands are dominated by introduced mangos.

v Mangos become very large trees. In height a mango tree may reach 35-40 meters (130 feet) with a span of 10 meters (33 feet) at the top. New leaves are almost a salmon color that rapidly changes to a dark glossy red, then dark green as they mature. When the small white flowers emerge they give off a mild sweet odour suggestive of lily of the valley. After the flowers fall off, the fruits may take from three to six months to ripen.The fruit flesh of a ripe mango contains about 15% sugar, up to 1% protein, and significant amounts of vitamins A, B and C. The taste of the fruit is very sweet, with some varieties having a slight acidic tang. The texture of the flesh varies markedly between different cultivars, some have quite a soft and pulpy texture similar to an over-ripe plum, others have a firmer flesh much like that of a cantaloupe or avacado, and in some cultivars the flesh can contain fibrous material. Mangoes are a very juicy fruit; the sweet taste and high water content make them refreshing to eat, however the juice can make eating them quite a messy affair.

v Mango is also used to make juices, both in ripe and unripe form. Pieces of fruit can be mashed and used in ice cream; they can be substituted for peaches in a peach (now mango) pie; or put in a blender with milk, a little sugar, and crushed ice for a refreshing beverage. A more traditional Indian drink is mango lassi, which is similar, but uses a mixture of yoghurt and milk as the base, and is sometimes flavoured with salt or cardamom.

Papaya

v The papaya, also known as mamao, tree melon, or pawpaw (but not to be confused with the true pawpaw), is the fruit of the herbaceous tree Carica papaya. Originally from southern Mexico and neighboring countries, the papaya is now cultivated in most tropical countries. The tree is also grown in the United States, primarily in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

v Papaya is rich in an enzyme called papain, a protease which is useful in tenderizing meat and other proteins. Its utility is in breaking down the tough meat fibers and has been utilized for thousands of years in its native South America. It is sold as a component in owdered meat tenderizer available in most supermarkets.

v The black seeds are edible, and have a sharp, spicy taste. They are sometimes ground up and used as a substitute for black pepper.

Pineapple

v The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant and its fruit, native to Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The plant is a bromeliad (family Bromeliaceae), a short, herbaceous perennial with 30 or more long, spined and pointed leaves surrounding a thick stem. The fruit was named "pineapple" because of its resemblance to a pine cone. The native Tupi word for the fruit was anana, meaning "excellent fruit." Hummingbirds are its natural pollinators.

v The pineapple is an old symbol of hospitality and can often be seen in carved decorations. The pineapple fruit develops from many smaller berries fusing together (called a multiple-accessory fleshy fruit). It is large and ovoid with a tough, spikey, waxy shell of many hexagonal sections, containing large amounts of white or yellow flesh with a tough, fibrous core. Depending on variety, the fruit can be up to 30 cm long and weigh more than 4 kg. Wild pineapples will contain one seed for each flower that produced the fruit. However, most commercially grown pineapples do not contain any seeds.

v Pineapple is commonly used in desserts and other types of fruit dishes, or served on its own. Fresh pineapple is often somewhat expensive as the tropical fruit is delicate and difficult to ship. It will not ripen once harvested, so must be harvested ripe and brought to the consumer without delay. Therefore, pineapple is most widely available canned. Signs of a ripe pineapple include:
v Flesh that is firm but yielding
v Leaves that can be readily removed with a sharp tug
v An odor of pineapple at the bottom of the fruit.

v Pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain, which digests food by breaking down protein. Pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. The enzymes in pineapples can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts. Some have claimed that pineapple has benefits for some intestinal disorders while others claim that it helps to induce childbirth when a baby is overdue.

Star Apple or Caimito

v Star apple is a beautiful tropical tree, growing rapidly up to 75 feet or more in height. It has round, purple skinned fruit, which is often green around the calyx, with a star pattern in the pulp. Cainito is hermaphroditic (self fertile).The skin and rind are not edible. Sometimes there is a greenish - white variety of the fruit. The reverse side of the oval leaves shines like a golden color seen from a distance; that's why it is also called golden leaf tree.The tiny flowers are purplish white and have a sweet fragrant smell.

v In Surinam the tree bears fruit year around. The fruits are delicious as a fresh dessert fruit; it is sweet and best served chilled; the flattened seeds are light - brown and hard. Star apple tree starts bearing fruit in 7 (seven) years.

Tamarind

v The Tamarind is a tropical tree, originally from east Africa but now introduced into most of tropical Asia as well as Latin America. The tree can grow up to 20 meters in height, and stays evergreen in regions without a dry season. Tamarind timber consists of hard, dark red heartwood and softer, yellowish sapwood. The leaves consist of 10 to 18 leaflets. The tree produces brown pod-like fruits, which contain pulp and hard-coated seeds. The seeds can be scarified to enhance germination.

v The pulp of the fruit is used as a spice both in Asian as well as in Latin American cuisine, and is also an important ingredient to Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce. The pulp of a young fruit is very sour, and hence suitable for main dishes, whereas a ripened fruit is sweeter and can be used in desserts, drinks, or as a snack. The pulp, leaves, and the bark also have medical applications. For example, in the Philippines, the leaves have been traditionally used in herbal tea for reducing malaria fever. Due to its denseness and durability, tamarind heartwood can be used in making furniture and wood flooring.

v Tamarind trees are very common in South India particularly in Andhra Pradesh. They are used to provide shade on the country roads and highways like oak trees. Monkeys love the ripened tamarind fruit. It is a staple in the South Indian diet, where it is used to prepare Sambhar (spicy lentil soup with lots of vegetables), Pulihora rice, and various types of chutneys. Tamarind is available in Indian stores worldwide. It is also sold as a candy in Mexico.The tamarind is the provincial tree of the Phetchabun province of Thailand.