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Pineapple Fruit - Benefits of Pineapple Tree

Botanical Name: Ananas Comosus, L.

Family Name : Bromeliaceae

This is a small genus of five species, native to tropical America. A. comosus, the polymorphic species, is cultivated widely in tropical countries for its succulent fruit. The pineapple plant is a perennial, erect herb, with a short stem bearing a rosette of leaves 2-3 ft. long, with prickly margins and spiny tips. The fruit, which has a rough surface and a crown of small leaves, has succulent flesh of yellow to light orange colour.

Although pineapple can be grown under a variety of conditions, it thrives best in places having a mild and humid tropical climate. It flourishes best in places where the annual rainfall is about 50 inches, evenly distributed throughout the year.

Origin and Distribution

The pineapple is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur. It was spread by the Indians up through South and Central America to the West Indies before Columbus arrived. In 1493 Columbus found the fruit on the island of Guadaloupe and carried it back to Spain and it was spread around the world on sailing ships that carried it for protection against scurvy. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines and may have taken it to Hawaii and Guam early in the 16th Century. The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in greenhouses for its fruit around 1720.

In India it is cultivated in Assam, Bengal and along the West coast. The pineapple was probably first domesticated in the high plateaus of central South America; it was widely planted for its fiber before Europeans first saw it in the Caribbean. Thereafter, cultivation spread to warm regions around the globe. Hawaiian plantations produce almost a third of the world's crop and supply 60 percent of canned pineapple products. Other leading producers are China, Brazil, and Mexico.

Properties of pineapple

Astringent, digestive, abortifacient, cooling, diuretic & febrifuge.

Forms of Use :- Fruit juice, jam.

Food Value of pineapple

Medicinal Uses & benefits

1. Fresh pineapple juice contains bronelin, an enzyme which aids digestion. This is destroyed on heating to 650 and above.
2. Pineapple juice is found to be very refreshing and cooling. It tones up body systems.
3. It is also anthelmintic in nature.
4. Pineapple juice from unripe fruits acts as violent purgative.
5. It is also an abortifacient.
6. To get rid of indigestion, sprinkle black pepper & salt over small pieces of pineapple and take 3-4 times in a day.
7. To get rid of swelling over the body, take one full ripe anannas daily for 15 days.
8. To get rid of stones, use pineapple juice daily for 15 days and, if required, one month.
9. Fresh juice is diuretic, diaphoretic, aperient and helps in the digestion of albuminous substances.
10. Juice of the unripe pineapple is acrid, styptic, powerful dimetic emmenagogue.
11. Fruit juice is given to ally-soothing gastric irritability in fever & in jaundice.
12. Juice of unripe pineapple shows promising antifertility property.

Raw pineapple or excessively ripe pineapple should be avoided during pregnancy.

Other uses

Pears are mostly eaten raw and taste great in desserts, the small cooking pears are always cooked and eaten as a vegetable or dessert and quinces are mostly processed to a kind of marmelade.

Products/Preservation

After harvesting, the fruit is carefully graded according to size and maturity and packed in boxes or crates for transport. Mature green fruits keep well for about a month at room temperature. A large part of the crop is canned. The pineapple juice from the trimmings, after treatment with lime, is used for the canning syrup. In some cases, however, the appearance of the canned fruit suffers slightly on account of removal of the deep set eyes and the fibrous nature 'of the flesh. The trimmings can be converted into pineapple jam, or pineapple syrup of good taste and flavour. The syrup can be blended with other fruit juices to produce fruit beverages.