Sugar Apple is a fruit native to tropical America and the West Indies. Spanish merchants at one time brought it to Asia, where the old Mexican name "annona" can still be found in various oriental languages ββin an adapted form - Bengali "ata", Nepalese "atl", Burmese "aaya" and Filipino "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, measuring 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 knotted 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 does the fruit taste like?
Annona pulp is fragrant and sweet, can be from creamy white to light yellow. Its consistency and taste resemble custard. Hard shiny seeds can be brown or black. Their amount on average is 20-30 pieces per fetus. Today, there are annon varieties that have almost no seeds.
Where does this fruit grow
This culture is a tree that naturally grows in the tropics of South America, and is currently 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 regions, on various types of soils, and is moderately resistant to drought. Such flexibility allows him to feel great on five continents. Annona is grown most intensively in India, where gardeners have identified more than a dozen cultivars.
Varieties and hybrids
Among the most famous Indian subspecies, one can distinguish the red annona, which is distinguished by a dark pink peel and a fresher taste. The sugar content in these fruits is the smallest. 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 bred in the state of Florida in 1955, when a very meager crop of slightly deformed fruits with simple remains of undeveloped seeds was obtained. Annona's taste was less attractive than that of normal fruits, but it propagated 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 is seriously improved.
New varieties are being created at present, 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 sweetness and consistency of the fruit resembles a sugar apple, but it has a completely different taste - as the name suggests, very similar to the taste of pineapple. The arrangement of seeds is also different - in atemia, they are located in segments spaced from each other, that is, the pulp will not hold back the 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 using a sugar apple, you must carefully remove the seeds, which are usually abundant, since they are toxic when ingested.
Oil obtained from seeds has been found to be as effective as conventional pesticides in eliminating various crop pests. It can be used to protect plants such as tomatoes, melons, soybeans in greenhouse conditions. In addition, subsequent tests showed that the toxic substance remains so for no more than two days, and is completely inactive after eight days. The same feature allows the use of seed powder in some countries as a treatment for pediculosis.
As the growing areas of sugar apple cultivation expanded, this plant began to be planted along with other crops, providing natural pesticides and enriching the local crop with great diversity. In fact, Annona can be more than just a tropical snack.
How to eat it?
Since the flesh is very tender and juicy, a sugar apple (a fruit, a photo of which can be seen in this article), you can just eat it by spitting out seeds that accidentally fall into your mouth. In Malaysia, fruits are often rubbed through a sieve, and subsequently they use juice with pulp. In addition, sugar apple puree is added to ice cream or milk, resulting in a very attractive dessert. Annona fruits are never cooked.
Sugar apple (fruit) - useful properties
One hundred grams of ripe fruit contains 88.9-95.7 calories, which is a lot. Due to this energy value, as well as the high content of other useful substances (per 100 grams of iron pulp - 0.28-1.34 mg, phosphorus 23.6-55.3 mg, calcium - 19.4-44.7 mg) this fruit is recommended for people in need of enhanced nutrition. In addition, the 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% whitish or yellowish oil with a saponification index of 186.40. For this reason, it has been proposed as a substitute for peanut butter in the soap industry. In addition, it can be neutralized 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 (mainly B-caryophyllene), which finds limited use in perfumery, giving smells a woody-spicy accent.
The fiber that is extracted from the bark of a tree can be used to make ropes.
Medicinal use
In India, in folk medicine, it is considered effective to smell the shredded annona 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.
Throughout tropical America, a decoction of the leaves of one annona or in combination with other plants is used as a means to stimulate menstruation, as well as an antipyretic, tonic, and cooling agent. Such a decoction is useful for the digestive system, and as a diuretic natural drug.
Outwardly, a decoction of leaves is also used in bathtubs to relieve rheumatic pains.
The green unripe fruit of a sugar apple is very tart, and it is used against diarrhea in El Salvador. In India, crushed ripened fruit mixed with salt is applied to tumors.
The bark and roots of the plant are highly astringent. A decoction of Annona bark is given as a tonic, as well as a cure for diarrhea. The root, due to its strong laxative effect, is introduced as a radical treatment for dysentery and other similar diseases.