The history of acai berry takes shape from the Amazon River basin in Brazil, where the acai palm tree growing in the northern part of the country bears these fruits in bunches. The acai berry juice, also known as “acai roots,” has been a popular drink of the Native Amazonians since the historical times, which is prepared by extracting the juice from the pulp of the fruit. Acai berry also has a legendary significance amongst the Amazonians, which says that due to the scarcity of food in the region the tribal chief had ordered all the newborns to be killed and so when his daughter Iaca’s child was also killed, she mourned his death and then heard a new palm tree shooting up from the ground and crying. She felt her dead son had come alive in the form of the plant and she died under it, which was named after her as “acai,” the reverse of “Iaca,” whose fruits wiped out hunger in the region. The health benefits of acai berry began to be realized in the 1950s and in the 1960s, the famous Gracie jiu-jitsu family made the concept of “acai and workouts” popular. Acai was brought to Rio de Janeiro by northern Brazilians in the ‘70s – ‘80s and soon the dish - Acai Bowls Rio Style or "acai na tigela" became popular. In the early ‘80s, the concept of acai berry juice and smoothie grew popular, especially in Rio. [Read More]
In Uganda, an infusion made of the ground root of the omuboro, drunk once a day for three days is considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac for men only. Science has not investigated the veracity of this belief. Conservationists in Uganda are concerned that demand for the plant threatens the survival of this species' genetic diversity in that country. African Cherry Health Benefits related alternative medicine supplements and vitamins. Also explore information on treatment, health benefits & side effects with African Cherry Health Benefits products. Many of the sources come from our Encyclopedia of Natural Health and include relevant health topics. Uses vary, but may include Easily Absorbed Non-Constipating Iron Supplement, and Reducing Risk of Cancer and are non-FDA reviewed or approved, natural alternatives, to use for Heart Disease, and Arthritis.
Eating African Cherry During Pregnancy related alternative medicine supplements and vitamins. Also explore information on treatment, health benefits & side effects with Eating African Cherry During Pregnancy products. [Read More]
Apricot
Eating African Cherry During Pregnancy related alternative medicine supplements and vitamins. Also explore information on treatment, health benefits & side effects with Eating African Cherry During Pregnancy products. [Read More]
Apricot
The apricot was known in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long, it is often thought to have originated there. Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives from that assumption. For example, De Poerderlé, writing in the 18th century, asserted, "Cet arbre tire son nom de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe ..." ("this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe ..."). An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found apricot seeds in an Eneolithic-era site. Despite the great number of varieties of apricots that are grown in Armenia today (about 50), according to Vavilov its center of origin would be the Chinese region, where the domestication of apricot would have taken place. Other sources say that the apricot was first cultivated in India in about 3000 BC.
Its introduction to Greece is attributed to Alexander the Great; later, the Roman General Lucullus (106–57 B.C.) also would have imported some trees – the cherry, white heart cherry, and apricot from Armenia to Rome[citation needed]. Subsequent sources were often confused about the origin of the species. Loudon (1838) believed it had a wide native range including Armenia, Caucasus, the Himalaya, China, and Japan. [Read More]
The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern Turkey. The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated, and its fruits have been improved through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in Asia in 328 BCE; those he brought back to Macedonia might have been the progenitors of dwarfing root stocks. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia, as well as in Argentina and in the United States since the arrival of Europeans. Apples were brought to North America by colonists in the 17th century, and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625. The only apples native to North America are crab apples, which were once called "common apples". Apple varieties brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes, as well as being cultivated on Colonial farms. [Read More]
P. americana, or the avocado, originated in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The native, undomesticated variety is known as a criollo, and is small, with dark black skin, and contains a large seed. The oldest evidence of avocado use was found in a cave located in Coxcatlán, Puebla, Mexico, that dates to around 10,000 BC. The avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America; a water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD 900, was discovered in the pre-Incan city of Chan Chan. The earliest known written account of the avocado in Europe is that of Martín Fernández de Enciso (c.1470–c.1528) in 1518 or 1519 in his book, Suma De Geographia Que Trata De Todas Las Partidas Y Provincias Del Mundo. The first written record in English of the use of the word 'avocado' was by Hans Sloane in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. The plant was introduced to Indonesia in 1750, Brazil in 1809, the Levant in 1908, and South Africa and Australia in the late 19th century. [Read More]
The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a "stalk" (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. The edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart. Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to 'Gros Michel' at 7 m (23 ft) or more. Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide. They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond look. [Read More]Bilberry is any of several species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium (family Ericaceae), bearing edible berries. The species most often referred to is Vaccinium myrtillus L., but there are several other closely related species. Bilberries are distinct from blueberries but closely related to them.
Bilberries are found in very acidic, nutrient-poor soils throughout the temperate and subarctic regions of the world. They are closely related to North American wild and cultivated blueberries and huckleberries in the genus Vaccinium. One characteristic of bilberries is that they produce single or paired berries on the bush instead of clusters, as the blueberry does. Blueberries have more evergreen leaves.
The fruit is smaller than that of the blueberry but with a fuller taste. Bilberries are darker in colour, and usually appear near black with a slight shade of purple. [Read More]
The (usually) black fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. It is a widespread and well-known group of over 375 species, many of which are closely related apomictic microspecies native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere and South America.
Blackberries are perennial plants which typically bear biennial stems ("canes") from the perennial root system.
In its first year, a new stem, the primocane, grows vigorously to its full length of 3–6 m (in some cases, up to 9 m), arching or trailing along the ground and bearing large palmately compound leaves with five or seven leaflets; it does not produce any flowers. In its second year, the cane becomes a floricane and the stem does not grow longer, but the lateral buds break to produce flowering laterals (which have smaller leaves with three or five leaflets).[3] First and second year shoots usually have numerous short curved very sharp prickles that are often erroneously called thorns. These prickles can tear through denim with ease, and make the plant very difficult to navigate around. Prickle-free cultivars have been developed. Recently the University of Arkansas has developed primocane fruiting blackberries that grow and flower on first year growth much as the primocane-fruiting (also called fall bearing or everbearing) red raspberries do. [Read More]
Blackcurrant, with the scientific name Ribes nigrum, is a species of Ribes native to central and northern Europe, and northern Asia. It is widely cultivated commercially and domestically as a temperate fruit crop for its abundant berries. It is less well known in the United States where it has been subject to restrictions as a disease vector for most of the 20th century.
Ribes nigrum, the blackcurrant, is a medium sized shrub, growing to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) x 1.5 metres (4.9 ft). The leaves are alternate, simple, 3–5 cm long and broad, and palmate with five lobes, with a serrated margin. When not in fruit, all parts of the plant are strongly aromatic, with the familiar blackcurrant fragrance. The flowers are 4–6 mm diameter, with five reddish-green to brownish petals; they are produced in racemes 5–10 cm long.
In midsummer the green fruit ripens to an edible berry up to 1 cm in diameter, very dark purple in colour, almost black, with a glossy skin and a persistent calyx at the apex, and containing several seeds dense in nutrients (notably Vitamin C). An established bush can produce up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of fruit. [Read More]
Morus nigra is a deciduous tree growing to 12 m (39 ft) tall by 15 m (49 ft) broad. The leaves are 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long by 6–10 cm (2–4 in) broad - up to 23 cm (9 in) long on vigorous shoots, downy on the underside, the upper surface rough with very short, stiff hairs.The edible fruit is dark purple, almost black, when ripe, 2–3 centimetres (0.8–1.2 in) long, a compound cluster of several small drupes; it is richly flavoured, similar to the red mulberry (Morus rubra) but unlike the more insipid fruit of the white mulberry (Morus alba).
Black mulberry has long been cultivated for its edible fruit and is planted and often naturalised west across much of Europe, including Ukraine, and east into China. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The black (Morus nigra) and white (Morus alba) mulberries are all widespread in Pakistan, Iran, India, and Afghanistan, where the tree and the fruit are known by the Persian-derived names toot (mulberry) or shahtoot (king's or "superior" mulberry). Jams and sherbets are often made from the fruit in this region. [Read More]
While all oranges are likely of hybrid origin between the pomelo and the tangerine, blood oranges originated as a mutation of the sweet orange.
Blood oranges may have originated in either China or the Southern Mediterranean, where they have been grown since the 18th century. They are now the primary orange grown in Italy. The anthocyanins which give the orange its distinct maroon color will only develop when temperatures are low at night, as during the Mediterranean fall and winter. Blood oranges cultivated in the United States are in season from December to March (Texas), and from November to May (California). [Read More]
Blueberries are perennial flowering plants with indigo-colored berries in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium (a genus that also includes cranberries and bilberries). Species in the section Cyanococcus are the most common fruits sold as "blueberries" and are native to North America (commercially cultivated highbush blueberries were not introduced into Europe until the 1930s).
They are usually erect, but sometimes prostrate shrubs varying in size from 10 centimeters (3.9 in) to 4 meters (13 ft) tall. In commercial blueberry production, smaller species are known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), and the larger species are known as "highbush blueberries".
The leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and 1–8 cm (0.39–3.1 in) long and 0.5–3.5 cm (0.20–1.4 in) broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish. The fruit is a berry 5–16 millimeters (0.20–0.63 in) in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark blue when ripe. They have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, so the height of the crop can vary from May to August depending upon these conditions. [Read More]
Many cherries are members of the subgenus Cerasus, which is distinguished by having the flowers in small corymbs of several together (not singly, nor in racemes), and by having smooth fruit with only a weak groove or none along one side. The subgenus is native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with two species in America, three in Europe, and the remainder in Asia. Other cherry fruits are members of subgenus Padus. Cherry trees with low exposure to light tend to have a bigger leaf size so they can intercept all light possible. Cherry trees with high exposure to light tend to have thicker leaves to concentrate light and have a higher photosynthetic capacity.
Most eating cherries are derived from either Prunus avium, the sweet cherry (also called the wild cherry), or from Prunus cerasus, the sour cherry. [Read More]
The chokeberries are often mistakenly called chokecherries, which is the common name for Prunus virginiana. Further adding to the ambiguity, there is a variety of Prunus virginiana named melanocarpa. This is easily confused with Aronia melanocarpa, commonly referred to as "black chokeberry" or "aronia berry." Aronia berries and chokecherries are both high in antioxidant pigment compounds, like anthocyanins, further contributing to confusion. In fact, the two plants are only distantly related within the Rosaceae [Read More]
A clementine is a variety of mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), so named in 1902. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance. Clementines can be separated into seven to fourteen segments. They tend to be very easy to peel, like a tangerine, but are almost always seedless. For this reason they are sometimes known as seedless tangerines; the clementine is also occasionally referred to as the Algerian tangerine. They are typically juicy and sweet, with less acid than oranges. Their oils, like other citrus fruits, contain mostly limonene as well as myrcene, linalool, α-pinene and many complex aromatics.
Most sources say that the clementine came to exist because of accidental hybridization, with the first fruits discovered by Father Clément Rodier in the garden of his orphanage in Misserghin, Algeria. However, there are claims it originated in China much earlier; one source describes it as nearly identical to the Canton mandarin widely grown in the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China.
The clementine is not always easy to distinguish from other varieties of mandarin oranges.[citation needed] As such, it should not be confused with similar fruit such as the satsuma or honey sweet orange, or other popular varieties.
This variety was introduced into California commercial agriculture in 1914, though it was grown at the Citrus Research Center (now part of the University of California, Riverside) as early as 1909. Clementines, usually grown in Algeria, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Greece, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey have been available in Europe for many years. A market for them in the United States was created when the harsh 1997 winter in Florida devastated domestic orange production, increasing prices and decreasing availability. Clementines are typically sold in net bags contained in small wooden or cardboard boxes. They sell in large numbers from mid-November through January, giving them the nickname "Christmas oranges" in some markets. [Read More]
The coconut palm (also, cocoanut), Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling cocoanut is an archaic form of the word. The term is derived from 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish coco, meaning "head" or "skull", from the three small holes on the coconut shell that resemble human facial features.
Found throughout the tropic and subtropic area, the coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many domestic, commercial, and industrial uses of its different parts. Coconuts are part of the daily diets of many people. Coconuts are different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of "water" and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature, they still contain some water and can be used as seednuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk. The endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, becoming the edible coconut "flesh". When dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying; coconut oil is also widely used in soaps and cosmetics. The clear liquid coconut water within is a refreshing drink. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating. It also has cultural and religious significance in many societies that use it.
Cocos nucifera is a large palm, growing up to 30 m (98 ft) tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m (13–20 ft) long, and pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. Coconuts are generally classified into two general types: tall and dwarf. On very fertile land, a tall coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year, but more often yields less than 30, mainly due to poor cultural practices. In recent years, improvements in cultivation practices and breeding have produced coconut trees that can yield more. [Read More]
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right. They can be found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere.
Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 metres (7 ft) long and 5 to 20 centimetres (2 to 8 in) in height; they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.
Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain American states and Canadian provinces (see cultivation and uses below). Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, jam, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is regarded as an indispensable part of traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menus and some European winter festivals. [Read More]
In the Netherlands Antilles it is kasjoema. This name and boeah nona are used in Surinam. In Cuba, it is mamon or chirimoya. Some Central Americans give it the name anona, or anonillo; Colombians, anon pelon. To the Carib Indians the fruit was known as alacalyoua; to the Aztecs, quaultzapotl, and to the Maya, tsulimay, tsulilpox, tsulipox, pox, oop, or op. [Read More]
Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. They are believed to have originated around Iraq, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE. The Ancient Egyptians used the fruits to make date wine, and ate them at harvest. There is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in eastern Arabia in 6000 BCE. (Alvarez-Mon 2006).
There is also archeological evidence of date cultivation in Mehrgarh around 7000 BCE, a Neolithic civilization in western Pakistan. Evidence of cultivation is continually found throughout later civilizations in the Indus Valley, including the Harappan period 2600 to 1900 BCE. (Kenoyer 2005). [Read More]
Going back generations, people in areas where dewberries grow, especially in Texas, have headed out to harvest them annually, just as their parents and grandparents did. They don’t do this to make a profit from selling the berries, though. They do it because nothing beats the smell of a fresh dewberry cobbler coming out of the oven. There is even a dewberry festival, which took place this past weekend in Cameron, Texas. If you can’t pick your own, the farmer’s market is a better place to look for them than the supermarket, but once you get some, try making a cobbler, or just serve with fresh, whipped cream.
The dewberries are a group of species in the genus Rubus, section Rubus, closely related to the blackberries. They are small trailing (rather than upright or high-arching) brambles with berries reminiscent of the raspberry, but are usually purple to black instead of red. Unlike many other Rubus species, dewberries have separate male and female plants (they are dioecious) (Burbank, methods and applications 3, AD 1914). [Read More]
