Healthy Fruit: Raspberry

The Raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus; the name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial. The name originally referred to the European species Rubus idaeus (with red fruit), and is still used as its standard English name.

Raspberries are grown for the fresh fruit market and for commercial processing into individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit, puree, juice, or as dried fruit used in a variety of grocery products. Traditionally, raspberries were a mid-summer crop, but with new technology, cultivars, and transportation, they can now be obtained year-round. Raspberries need ample sun and water for optimal development. While moisture is essential, wet and heavy soils or excess irrigation can bring on Phytophthora root rot which is one of the most serious pest problems facing red raspberry. As a cultivated plant in moist temperate regions, it is easy to grow and has a tendency to spread unless pruned. Escaped raspberries frequently appear as garden weeds, spread by seeds found in bird droppings. The flowers can be a major nectar source for honeybees and other pollinators.

Raspberries are very vigorous and can be locally invasive. They propagate using basal shoots (also known as suckers); extended underground shoots that develop roots and individual plants. They can sucker new canes some distance from the main plant. For this reason, raspberries spread well, and can take over gardens if left unchecked.

The fruit is harvested when it comes off the torus/receptacle easily and has turned a deep color (red, black, purple, or golden yellow, depending on the species and cultivar). This is when the fruits are ripest and sweetest. Excess fruit can be made into raspberry jam or frozen. The leaves can be used fresh or dried in herbal and medicinal teas. They have an astringent flavour, and in herbal medicine are reputed to be effective in regulating menses.

An individual raspberry weighs about 4 g, on average and is made up of around 100 drupelets, each of which consists of a juicy pulp and a single central seed. Raspberry bushes can yield several hundred berries a year. Unlike blackberries and dewberries, a raspberry has a hollow core once it is removed from the receptacle.

Nutrients and health benefits

Raspberries contain significant amounts of polyphenol antioxidants such as anthocyanin pigments linked to potential health protection against several human diseases. The aggregate fruit structure contributes to its nutritional value, as it increases the proportion of dietary fiber, placing it among plant foods with the highest fiber contents known, up to 20% fiber per total weight. Raspberries are a rich source of vitamin C, with 30 mg per serving of 1 cup (about 50% daily value), manganese (about 60% daily value) and dietary fiber (30% daily value). Contents of B vitamins 1-3, folic acid, magnesium, copper and iron are considerable in raspberries.

Raspberries rank near the top of all fruits for antioxidant strength, particularly due to their dense contents of ellagic acid (from ellagotannins), quercetin, gallic acid, anthocyanins, cyanidins, pelargonidins, catechins, kaempferol and salicylic acid. Yellow raspberries and others with pale-colored fruits are lower in anthocyanins.

Due to their rich contents of antioxidant vitamin C and the polyphenols mentioned above, raspberries have an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of about 4900 per 100 grams, including them among the top-ranked ORAC fruits. Cranberries and wild blueberries have around 9000 ORAC units and apples average 2800.

The following anti-disease properties have been isolated in experimental models. Although there are no clinical studies to date proving these effects in humans, preliminary medical research shows likely benefit of regularly consuming raspberries against. Those are inflammation, pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, allergies, age-related cognitive decline and degeneration of eyesight with aging.

Raspberries, raw : Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 263.592 kJ (63 kcal) | Carbohydrates 14.7 g

Sugars 5.4 g | Dietary fiber 8.0 g | Fat 0.8 g

Saturated 0 g | monounsaturated 0.1 g

Polyunsaturated 0.5 g | Protein 1.5 g

Vitamin A equiv. 1 μg (0%) | - beta-carotene 120 μg (1%)

Vitamin C 54 mg (90%) | Calcium 3 mg (0%)

Iron 5 mg (40%) | Sodium 1 mg (0%)

Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient database

Source, Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry

Healthy Fruit: Plum (Prune)

A Plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera (peaches, cherries, bird cherries, etc.) in the shoots having a terminal bud and the side buds solitary (not clustered), the flowers in groups of one to five together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one side and a smooth stone (or pit).

Mature plum fruit may have a dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous appearance and is easily rubbed off. This is an epicuticular wax coating and is known as "wax bloom". Dried plum fruits are called dried plums or prunes, although prunes are a distinct type of plum, and may have pre-dated the fruits now commonly known as plums.

Plum fruit tastes sweet and/or tart; the skin may be particularly tart. It is juicy and 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, Rakia, Tuica or Palinka. Dried plums (or prunes) are also sweet and juicy and contain several antioxidants. Plums and prunes are known for their laxative effect. This effect has been attributed to various compounds present in the fruits, such as dietary fiber, sorbitol, and isatin. Prunes and prune juice are often used to help regulate the functioning of the digestive system.

As with many other members of the rose family, plum seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, including amygdalin. These substances are capable of decomposing into a sugar molecule and hydrogen cyanide gas. While plum seeds are not the most toxic within the rose family—that dubious honor going to the bitter almond—large doses of these chemicals from any source are hazardous to human health.

Dried prune marketers in the United States have, in recent years, begun marketing their product as "dried plums". This is due to "prune" having negative connotations connected with elderly people suffering from constipation. Dried, salted plums are used as a snack, sometimes known as salaito or salao. Various flavors of dried plum are available at Chinese grocers and specialty stores worldwide. They tend to be much drier than the standard prune. Cream, Ginsing, Spicy, and Salty are among the common varieties. Licorice is generally used to intensify the flavor of these plums and is used to make salty plum drinks and toppings for Shaved Ice or baobing.

Pickled plums are another type of preserve available in Asia and international specialty stores. The Japanese variety, called umeboshi, is often used for rice balls, called "Onigiri" or "Omusubi". The ume, from which umeboshi are made, is however more closely related to the apricot than to the plum. Prune kernel oil is made from the fleshy inner part of the pit of the plum.

Plums come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. Some are much firmer-fleshed than others and some have yellow, white, green or red flesh, with equally varying skin color. Plum cultivars in use today include:

Damson, or Damask Plum

Greengage (Firm, green flesh and skin even when ripe.)

Mirabelle (Dark yellow, predominantly grown in northeast France.)

Satsuma plum (Firm red flesh with a red skin.)

'Victoria' (Yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin.)

Yellowgage, or Golden plum (Similar to Greengage, but yellow.)

When it flowers in the early spring, a plum tree will be covered in blossom, and in a good year approximately 50% of the flowers will be pollinated and become plums. Flowering starts after 80 growing degree days.

If the weather is too dry the plums will not develop past a certain stage, but will fall from the tree while still tiny green buds, and if it is unseasonably wet or if the plums are not harvested as soon as they are ripe, the fruit may develop a fungal condition called brown rot. Brown rot is not toxic, and very small affected areas can be cut out of the fruit, but unless the rot is caught immediately the fruit will no longer be edible. Plum is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera including November Moth, Willow Beauty and Short-cloaked Moth.

A large number of plums are also grown in Hungary where they are called szilva and are used to make lekvar (a plum paste jam), palinka (a slivovitz-type liquor), plum dumplings, and other foods. The region of Szabolcs-Szatmar, in the northeastern part of the country near the borders with Ukraine and Romania, is a major producer of plums. The plum is commonly used in China, Yunnan area, to produce a local plum wine with a smooth, sweet, fruity taste and approximately 12% alcohol by volume.

Plums (without pit) Prunes spp.

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 192 kJ (46 kcal) | Carbohydrates 11.4 g

Sugars 9.9 g | Dietary fiber 1.4 g

Fat 0.28 g | Protein 0.70 g

Vitamin A 345 IU | Vitamin C 9.5 mg (16%)

Phosphorus 16 mg (2%) | Potassium 157 mg (3%)

                1 fruit (2-1/8" dia) 66 g
                1 cup, sliced 165 g
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient database

A Prune is any of various plum species, mostly Prunus domestica or European Plum. It is called 'Alu-bukhara' in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They are usually sold as dried fruit. The dried fruit (also referred to as a dried plum) is wrinkly in texture, and has chewy flesh. Fresh plums that are marketed as "prunes" have an oval shape and a more easily removed pit.

More than 1,000 cultivars of plums are grown for drying. The main cultivar grown in the US is the Improved French prune. Other varieties include Sutter, Tulare Giant, Moyer, Imperial, Italian, and Greengage. In general, fresh prunes are freestone cultivars (the pit is easy to remove), whereas most other plums grown for fresh consumption are cling (the pit is more difficult to remove). Fresh prunes reach the market earlier than fresh plums and are usually smaller in size.

Due to popular perception of prunes being used for constipation in older people, and being the subject of related distasteful joking, many of today's distributors have stopped using the word on the package label. Their preference is to state "dried plums".

Prunes are used in cooking both sweet and savory dishes. Stewed prunes, a compote, are a dessert. Prunes are a frequent ingredient in North African tagines. Perhaps the best-known gastronomic prunes are those of Agen (pruneaux d'Agen). Prunes are used frequently in Tzimmes, a traditional Jewish dish in which the principal ingredient is diced or sliced carrots; and in the traditional Norwegian desserts fruktsuppe and sviskekompott. Prunes have also been included in other holiday dishes, such as stuffing, cake, and to make sugar plums.

Health benefits

Prune juice is made by softening prunes through steaming and then putting them through a pulper to create a watery puree. Prunes and their "juice" contain the natural laxative dihydrophenylisatin (related to isatin). Faster results are obtained by heating the prune juice. Prunes also contain dietary fiber (about 6%, or 0.06 g per gram of prune). Prunes and prune juice are thus common home remedies for constipation. Prunes also have a high antioxidant content. In China, the popular summer drink suanmeitang, made with sour prunes, is sometimes thought to have positive effects on acidity in the body.

Plums, dried (prunes), uncooked

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 1,006 kJ (240 kcal) | Carbohydrates 63.88 g

Sugars 38.13 g | Dietary fiber 7.1 g

Fat 0.38 g | Protein 2.18 g

Vitamin A 781 IU | Vitamin C 0.6 mg (1%)

Phosphorus 69 mg (10%) | Potassium 732 mg (16%)

                1 prune, pitted 9.5 g
                1 cup, pitted 174 g

Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient database

Source, Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prune

Healthy Fruit: Pineapple

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit which are coalesced berries. Pineapples are the only bromeliad fruit in widespread cultivation. It can be grown as an ornamental, especially from the leafy tops. Some sources say that the plant will flower after about 24 months & produce a fruit during the following six months while others indicate a 20-month timetable.

Pineapple is eaten fresh or canned or juiced. It is popularly used in desserts, salads, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail. The popularity of the pineapple is due to its sweet-sour taste containing 15% sugar and malic and citric fruit acids. It is also high in vitamin B1, B2, B6 and C. Its protein-digesting enzyme bromelain seems to help digestion at the end of a high protein meal. In the Philippines, pineapple leaves are used as the source of a textile fiber called pina.

The word pineapple in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). The term pine cone for the reproductive organ of conifer trees was first recorded in 1694. When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them pineapples (term first recorded in that sense in 1664 because of their resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone).

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas, the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) word nanas, meaning "excellent fruit", as recorded by Andre Thevet in 1555, and comosus, "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the Ananas genus are often called pine as well by laymen.

Many languages use the Tupian term ananas. In Spanish, pineapples are called pina "pine cone" in Spain and most Hispanic American countries, or anana (ananas in Argentina). They have varying names in the languages of India: "Anaasa" (in telugu, annachi pazham (Tamil), anarosh (Bengali), and in Malayalam, kaitha chakka. In Malay, pineapples are known as "nanas" or "nenas". In the Maldivian language of Dhivehi, pineapples are known as alanaasi. A large, sweet pineapple grown especially in Brazil is called abacaxi.

The pineapple is a herbaceous short-lived perennial plant which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 metres (3.3 to 4.9 ft) tall. The plant only produces one fruit and then dies. Commercially suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 centimetres (1.0 to 3.3 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem. In the first year of growth the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. Flower colours vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red.

The ovaries develop into berries which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple accessory fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. Pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate and then releasing it during the day, aiding photosynthesis.

Pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain, which breaks down protein. Pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. The enzymes in raw pineapples can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts, but it breaks down during cooking and the canning process. Though some have claimed pineapple should not be consumed by people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome or kidney or liver disease, the quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not medically significant, being mostly in the inedible stalk.

Some buyers prefer green fruit, others ripened or off-green. A plant growth regulator Ethephon is typically sprayed onto the fruit one week before harvest, developing ethylene, which turns the fruit golden yellow. After cleaning and slicing they are typically canned in sugar syrup with added preservative. For home use, green pineapples will ripen naturally at room temperature, though they can quickly over ripen.

Nutrition

Pineapple is a good source of manganese (91% DV in a 1 cup serving), and also contains significant amounts of vitamin C (94% DV in a 1 cup serving) and vitamin B₁ (8% DV in a 1 cup serving).

Pineapple, raw : Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 202 kJ (48 kcal) | Carbohydrates 12.63 g

Sugars 9.26 g | Dietary fiber 1.4 g

Fat 0.12 g | Protein 0.54 g

Thiamine (Vit. B₁) 0.079 mg (6%)

Riboflavin (Vit. B₂) 0.031 mg (2%)

Niacin (Vit. B₃) 0.489 mg (3%)

Pantothenic acid (B₅) 0.205 mg (4%)

Vitamin B₆ 0.110 mg (8%)

Folate (Vit. B₉) 15 μg (4%)

Vitamin C 36.2 mg (60%)

Calcium 13 mg (1%) | Iron 0.28 mg (2%)

Magnesium 12 mg (3%) | Phosphorus 8 mg (1%)

Potassium 115 mg (2%) | Zinc 0.10 mg (1%)

Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient database

Source, Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple