Papaya is a tropical tree that grows in Africa, Asia, and South America. Often called “melon tree”, and in Australia, dad or paws. Papaya fruit of Carica Papaya. There are two known varieties – Mexican and Hawaiian. Here is a shortlist of curious tropical fruit facts.
Mexican papaya weighs up to 10 kg, while Hawaiian papaya weighs about 1 kg.
Only in Hawaii is papaya grown for the trade.
Papaya is the first genetically modified fruit in the United States.
Unripe papayas act as natural contraception and can cause miscarriage.
Papaya tea is used as a defense against malaria.
The seeds of the fruit resemble black pepper and are edible. They can be peeled and used as a substitute for black pepper.
The bark of the papaya tree is often used for rope.
Papaya contains latex (the white juice that comes out of unripe papaya), which can cause an allergic reaction in people with latex allergies.
If you eat too much, papaya (like carrots) can lead to carotenemia – yellowing of the feet and palms.
A small papaya contains about 300% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C.
In different parts of the world, you can find various exotic fruits that many of us have never heard of. One of these fruits is pomelo, which appeared on the shelves of our stores relatively recently and has not yet gained great popularity among customers. What is interesting about this large citrus and is it useful, we will tell you about this today.
The name of this citrus should be pronounced with an accent on the letter “e”. Americans call this fruit “Pumelo”, and the Chinese call it “Yu”. Also, you can often find this fruit on store shelves called shaddock, this is how the surname of the European sounded, who was the first to describe this fruit.
It is believed that the homeland of the pomelo is southeast Asia, and this fruit came to America thanks to Shaddock.
The island of Barbados was the first place where pomelo trees were grown from seeds.
It was on the island of Barbados that orange pomelo pollination or rebirth took place, as a result of which the grapefruit appeared.
After you taste the pomelo, a slight bitterness will remain in your mouth, and the aftertaste is very reminiscent of a grapefruit.
Pomelo is a real treasure trove of vitamins, trace elements, and other useful substances.
Pomelo has strong diuretic properties and in this respect, it can even compete with watermelon.
The Chinese use pomelo crusts to prepare medicines for traditional and alternative Chinese medicine
Pomelo pulp is not only tasty but also healthy, as it is rich in pectin. That is why this fruit is used in the preparation of marmalade. Besides the fact that pectin also improves metabolism, it is a known fact that pectin cleanses the body of pesticides, toxic and radioactive substances!
Interestingly, our exotic fruit is also an antidepressant, as it contains substances that strengthen the nervous system and help fight bad moods. Great property, isn’t it?
A good ripe fruit should have a rich aroma, a pale green or yellow color, and be slightly springy, like a “rubber ball”. Of course, it shouldn’t have any damage – a smooth and shiny fruit is the perfect pomelo.
The bitter orange is a medium-sized evergreen tree, reaching up to 10 m in height. Indoors do not exceed 1 m. The crown is highly branched, spherical, with a spiral arrangement of leaves. The branches have thin, long thorns. Leaves are elliptical, pointed, dense, leathery, alternate. Smooth, shiny, bright green above, light green below with translucent containers of essential oil. Attached to wide-winged, long petioles.
Orange has other names: sour orange, bitter orange, bigaradia, chinotto.
The homeland of this citrus is India, where the plant was cultivated several hundred years ago. Today the orange fruit is grown in many tropical and subtropical countries. In Russia, the distribution of the orange is especially widespread in the southern regions, where it is grown as a houseplant. Not found in the wild.
At home, it grows in the form of a miniature slender tree or a compact spectacular bush. Large, fragrant, white, and pink-orange flowers give it decorativeness, which looks very elegant against the background of bright green foliage.
Fresh orange fruit is not used, it is valued because of its zest. To obtain it, the peel is separated from the pulp and dried for several days in a dry, warm place, spreading out in a thin layer on a flat surface.
The rind is considered finished when it becomes thin and fragile. Now you can get zest from it. The main use of orange fruit is in the manufacture of various desserts and pastries.
From the leaves and flowers of this plant, essential oils are obtained, which are used in aromatherapy and the preparation of marmalade.
Unripe fruits that fall from the tree are used to make essential oil used in the production of alcoholic beverages.
The orange flower is considered a symbol of innocence and is a traditional part of the bride’s wedding bouquet. The scent of the flowers of this tree in Japanese poetry is associated with memories of the past. Earlier, orange petals were used to fill the pockets of wide sleeves.
Another interesting fact about the orange is that you can see its image on the coat of arms of the city of Lomonosov.
Bitter orange fruits are harvested unripe when they reach 1 cm in diameter, then dried in the sun. The peel is removed from ripe fruits, and after drying it is thoroughly peeled from the white inner layer.
The finished raw materials are used in the cosmetic, food industry, and medicine.
Apples are included in the daily diet of many people, being not only a source of vitamins but also just a delicious fruit. However, few people, crunching a juicy red-sided fruit, think about the benefits that it brings to the body.
The average apple has about 80 calories.
According to archaeological finds, people have been growing apple trees since about 8,500 years ago.
Apple peel is high in healthy fiber to aid digestion.
Apple orchards cover an area of about five million hectares on the surface of our planet.
Apples lower blood cholesterol levels.
The apple symbol is very widespread in heraldry; it flaunts on eighty coats of arms.
Apples tone the body no worse than coffee.
If the apple quickly darkened at the cut, then it is good.
There are more than seven thousand varieties of apples in the world, but only about a hundred of them go on sale.
The oldest apple tree in the world grows in the United States, it was planted in 1647, and still bears fruit.
For medieval alchemists, the apple was a symbol of knowledge.
The heaviest apple ever grown weighed about 1.3 kilograms.
The apple is the most frequently mentioned fruit in mythology.
The Russian Queen Elizabeth could not stand apples and forbade her courtiers to eat them.
The homeland of apples is the territory of modern Kazakhstan.
The apple tree was the first tree that humans cultivated.
The world’s first apple-producing country is China.
Apples are a quarter of air, and therefore do not sink in water.
The best thing that you can do for your body to saturate it with vitamins and minerals is to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables. One of the many summer fruits is a nectarine.
Some people unknowingly often think that nectarine is a kind of hybrid of fruits (plum and peach, for example). However, the nectarine is actually the product of a peach mutation. It turns out that in the development of peach buds, certain mutations took place on trees, among ordinary peaches, hairless fruits – nectarines – appeared.
Its name comes from the phrase – “food of the gods”. Moreover, in China, this fruit is a symbol of long life.
Interestingly, nectarines can appear on peach trees, but not on nectarine peaches.
The most delicious fruits grow closer to the trunk, so nectarines are best planted in the form of small trees or bushes.
The calorie content of this product is 48 kcal per 100 g. It contains a lot of carbohydrates – 11.5 g, proteins – 9.8 g, and there are practically no fats – 0.2 g.
Its pulp is saturated with such useful substances as iron, phosphorus, potassium.
It contains malic and citric acids, as well as glucose, fructose, and sucrose. It has significantly less sugar than a regular peach. It also contains pectin, which is an important component in the fight against cancer.
In addition, nectarines can have a positive effect on gastrointestinal problems, helping in the digestion of food.
Nectarine helps to retain moisture in tissue cells. Accordingly, it is a prophylactic agent for skin aging and first wrinkles.
It is a powerful antioxidant, helping to contain the negative effects of the environment. Speeds up metabolism.
Pharmacology: Nectarine is used in the manufacture of conventional activated carbon, as well as its cores are used for ointments and other drugs.
Store ripe fruit in a cool, dry place for several days. It will mature even more over time, so don’t store the nectarines for too long. Can also be refrigerated to extend shelf life, but nectarines taste best at room temperature.
Sliced fruits should always be kept in the refrigerator in a closed container, or they can be frozen and stored in freezer bags or frost-resistant containers for later use on baked goods and smoothies.
Gardeners who are sensitive to their site try to decorate it with exotic flowers, trees, and shrubs. One of these unusual plants is the medlar.
The medlar fruit has been known since ancient times. It was grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Medicines were prepared from it. Plantings with a branchy crown adorned the gardens of the nobles. Historians claim that the homeland of the pine tree in Iran.
Medlar belongs to the family of Rosaceae plants. The name of the culture came from the Turkic language. It is also called the cup or cone tree, and the fruits are cones or cones.
In Turkey and Israel, medlar is used for landscaping streets. Some exotic lovers keep the culture like a houseplant.
In its natural environment, it looks more like a bush with large leaves and thorns on the branches. In cultivated plants, thorns are absent, but they can appear in the medlar of the Germanic species.
The pine tree grows up to 6-8 m in height. Outwardly, it looks like a nut. The plant prefers a mild climate, cool summers, and warm winters, but in its natural environment, it can withstand severe frosts down to -30 ° C.
The wood of the medlar is used by folk craftsmen for the manufacture of interior decorations. Medium hardwood. The bark contains pigment. The extract from the bark is used as dyes for fabrics.
Leaves are wide, oval, up to 30 cm long. The edges are solid, without cuts. The shade is a rich green. The veins are light in young leaves, red in adults.
When ripe on the tree medlar, fruits and apples grow. They are small in size, covered with a dense protective shell. Young apples have a hard shell. When eaten, it is removed. It becomes thinner in ripe fruits. The shape and color of an apple depend on the variety of culture, it can be round or pear-shaped.
There are 3-5 large seeds inside the apple. They are triangular, flattened, brown. They also found use in cooking. Seeds are placed in poultry or meat when baked to complement the dish with fruity notes. Distillers add them to their drinks to give them the flavor of Amaretto.
The seeds are enclosed in a juicy orange or reddish pulp. It contains many vitamins and minerals.
In total, there are 2 varieties of medlar, Germanic or ordinary, (Mespilus germanica) and Japanese (Eriobotrya japonica), Eriobotrya. Crops differ in the growing season, shape, and taste of the fruit.
Both crops are grown for landscape design. Japanese variety is preferred for consumption.
The fruit of a juicy medlar is used raw. Jam, compotes, desserts are made from it.
The exotic fruit of the Japanese variety looks like a small pear. In color, it is closer to apricot. It tastes like the sweet cherry, hawthorn, sea buckthorn. The pulp is orange, juicy, not tart. The shell is dense, solid. In the ripe fruit, brown blotches may appear on it.
Medlar of both the Germanic and Japanese varieties produce healthy fruits and leaves. Healing teas are prepared from the leaves. They increase tone, support immunity.
By the color of the fruit, it can be determined that they are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin “A”, which is essential for eye health.
The product has contraindications. Its pulp is sweet and sour. The acid can trigger an attack of gastritis. It is not recommended to use it with increased acidity of the stomach, with peptic ulcer disease.
Passion fruit is one of those fruits that you should definitely try while vacationing in the tropical countries of Southeast Asia.
Passion fruit in English is called passion fruit (pronounced “peshen fruit” and translated as “passion fruit”). It is a delicious tropical fruit that is quite common in Asian markets and shops.
The homeland of the edible Stratus Blossom (the scientific name of the passionfruit from the Latin Passiflora edulis) is South America, from where the familiar name “passionfruit” comes. This is how this fruit is called in Brazil, Colombia, Peru.
Today, passion fruit is grown in tropical and subtropical climates almost everywhere (in the warm regions of America, Asia, Australia, and Oceania).
With long-term storage, passionfruit fruits become “wrinkled” – they lose their smoothness and bright color. At the same time, the taste of passion fruit does not suffer at all. Only overtly rotten fruits should be avoided.
Sometimes half-empty passionfruit fruit comes across, in which there is the very little juicy edible part. Try comparing the weight of fruits of similar size. If you feel that one of them is too light, do not buy it.
The passionfruit plant is an evergreen liana (vine) that grows in much the same way as grapes. Under favorable conditions, it can give 2 harvests per year.
But we, of course, are more interested in the most delicious – passionfruit fruit. It is round or oval in shape with juicy pulp and many seeds inside.
Passion fruit can range in color from yellow to deep purple, depending on the variety and maturity. However, so is the taste of passionfruit, which ranges from sour to sweet.
Many varieties of passion fruit are sweet and do not need a sweetener. But, if you come across a sour variety, then you can add sugar or honey to taste. In the Philippines, passionfruit pulp is sprinkled with chili peppers, and in Thailand – with salt or pepper and salt.
Peeling this exotic fruit is easy – cut it in half and use a spoon to eat the pulp.
In many countries, passion fruit is eaten fresh. Juices, jams, preserves are also made from this tropical fruit. Passion fruit is often added to yogurts, cocktails, ice cream.
In addition to the fact that passionfruit is a truly delicious exotic fruit, it is also healthy.
13. It contains a lot of vitamin C, B2 and B3. Improves digestion, is a source of iron and phosphorus.
14. Passion fruit seed oil is widely used in cosmetology.
Longan (Lam Yai) is the fruit of an evergreen longan tree found in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Longan’s skin is thin and dense, but in fact, it is very easy to peel off. Longan’s color ranges from brown to yellowish red, and the flesh is translucent, white, or pinkish. The juicy pulp of Longan has a sweet, juicy, highly aromatic taste with a distinct musk flavor.
Longan tastes like lychee and in general, these two fruits are very similar. Like the Chinese lychees, the longan fruit contains a hard, dark red or black seed. Longan grows in clusters on evergreen trees, the height of which can reach ten to twenty meters.
Harvesting season: June-August. Longan grows mainly in the northern regions of Thailand, in the township of Chiang Mai and Lamphun.
Longan’s homeland is either land west of Burma or the area of origin of Litchi in China. It is in these regions that they are grown on a large scale. Longan has another name – “longyan” – which means “dragon’s eye” in Chinese.
Longan is believed to be originally grown in southern India and the island of Sri Lanka.
Longan is sold as grapes, in bunches. The skin of a ripe fruit must be firm, and cracks in the skin are unacceptable. More ripe is not the longan that has just been plucked from the tree, but the one that has already lain a little on the store counter. Try longan before buying, as the fruits are sweeter or more acidic.
Longan can be stored for two to three days at room temperature or five to seven days in the refrigerator.
Longan contains many vitamins and minerals, including iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as high amounts of vitamins A and C.
Recent studies of euphoria have shown that the fruit also contains phenols such as gallic acid, ellagic and corylagic acids, indicating the fact that the fruit can have antioxidant properties, reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy and protect the liver.
Longan contains riboflavin and is a natural source of polysaccharides, supporting cellular health.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Longan is mainly used as a tonic. Toning is mainly necessary for diseases whose symptoms are fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations, pallor, and impaired vision.
Besides, the fruit is also used to normalize sleep, reduce unreasonable anxiety, calm and revitalize attention.
Among the fruits popular in Asia, which remain very exotic in our area, stands out the citron “Buddha’s hand”, so named for its unusual appearance. These are the largest of all citrus fruits.
This fruit, which grows on evergreen shrubs, was known in the countries of East Asia many centuries ago.
In China, for example, the plant was introduced from India after the fourth century AD. From China, a citron with an unusual shape came to Japan.
For many centuries, the Chinese and Japanese have appreciated this unusual fruit called the fingered citron precisely for its bizarre shape, and this citron looks like a lemon with tentacles like a squid.
The fruits of this tropical evergreen shrub in the countries of East Asia have always been considered a symbol of longevity, wealth, and happiness; houses, temples, and altars were decorated with citrons.
Classical Chinese artists have recreated the shape of citrons in jade and ivory, creating amazingly beautiful works of art.
Finger citron has a subtle aroma, more pronounced than that of its other relatives from the genus Citrus, therefore fruits in Japan and China are used to flavor rooms and clothes.
Also, the fruits are eaten, but only in a candied or dried form. The peel of this citron is used for the production of candied fruits and spices.
Citrons “Buddha’s hand” are grown for decorative purposes, for ritual sacrifices, for decorating the interior and, of course, for eating. However, these fruits are not consumed raw.
Raw fruits are not suitable for human consumption, however, in a candied or dried form, they can be used in cooking, the skin of the fruit is used for making candied fruits.
Sometimes the fruit pulp can be added to salads or as a seasoning, for example, to fish, as part of other flavors.
What do we know about lemon? Sour, aromatic, delicious in tea, an irreplaceable remedy for colds. But there are other, very interesting facts that we will tell you about today.
India and China are considered to be the homeland of lemon. There is a theory according to which lemons came to Greece with the soldiers of Alexander the Great after their campaign in India. Then the lemon was called the Indian apple. Another theory says that the Arabs brought the lemon to Europe and the Middle East.
But in the distant 17th century in Russia, there were no lemons. Only the rich could eat them: they ordered salted lemons from Holland.
The origin of the word “lemon” is attributed to the Malay and Chinese languages. Le-mo in Malay and li-mung in Chinese means good for mothers.
They even make riddles about lemons and write funny stories. From them you can learn that with the help of lemon you can disrupt the performance of a brass band: it is enough to eat a lemon in front of the musicians. Those will begin to salivate profusely, and they will not be able to play the wind instruments.
There is a theory that the lemon was the bone of contention in the Bible. According to another theory, it was a pomegranate, as we have already written about.
Despite the “bone of contention” from the theory above, lemon is considered the fruit of friendship. Otto Schmidt, a famous polar explorer, inoculated a lemon in 1940 – before that the tree was grafted by breeder Zorin. Since then, an interesting tradition has started: people from different countries began to graft this tree. In 1957, the lemon tree was named the Friendship tree. By this time, 167 vaccinations have been given to lemon. Today there are more than 3,000 of them, just imagine! Yes, the tree is still alive and growing in Sochi.
Foreign journalists call some athletes lemons. For example, the French called Evgeny Kafelnikov a lemon – he was taciturn, cold, and did not make contact.
Lemon is often found in Spanish folklore. There he symbolizes unhappy love. But the orange is responsible for the happy one.
Every year, 14 million tons of lemons are harvested in the world. Most lemons are harvested in Mexico and India.
Lemon was listed in the Guinness Book of Records. A simple Israeli farmer has grown a lemon weighing more than 5 kilograms on his plot. Can you imagine what size it should be? By the way, the record cannot be broken for 14 years already.
