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Peach Fruit (With Pictures)- Benefits of Peach Tree

Botanical Name: Prunus persica

Family Name : Rosaceae

Peach grows on a small tree up to 8m high with glabrous twigs, leaves oblong to broad lanceolate, serrate, glabrous, flowers solitary, pink; fruits subglobose, 5-7 cm across, fleshy, with a hard and deeply pitted stone.

Peaches can be red, pink, yellow, white, or a combination of those colors.  On one side of the fruit is a distinctive vertical indentation. Peaches and nectarines look very similar, but they can be told apart by their skin texture: peaches are fuzzy and dull, while nectarines are smooth and shiny.

Origin and Distribution Peaches were probably the first fruit crop domesticated in China about 4000 years ago. Cultivars grown today derive largely from ecotypes native to southern China, an area with climate similar to that of the southeastern USA, a major peach growing region. Peaches were moved to Persia (Iran) along silk trading routes. In fact, the epithet persica denotes Persia, which is where Europeans thought peaches originated. Greeks and especially Romans spread the peach throughout Europe and England starting in 300-400 BC. Peaches came to the new world with explorers of the 16th-17th centuries, with the Portuguese introducing it to South America and Spaniards to the northern Florida coast of North America. Native Americans and settlers distributed the peach across North America into southern Canada, and it is cultivated in 2/3 of the 48 contiguous states today.

Properties of peach

Stomachic, demulcent, anti-scorbutic, anthelmintic.

Forms of Use :- Fruit is eaten raw.

Food Value of peach

Peaches are a fair source of sugars, thiamine (Vitamin B1) and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and retinol (Vitamin A). Ripe peaches contain 88 per cent of edible matter as shown by the following composition obtained by the analysis of peaches (per 100 gms):

The acids present in peach are mainly malic and citric acids.

Medicinal Uses & benefits

1. Fruits are given in stomach ailments.
2. Boosts your immune system
3. Its juice is known to remove worms from the intestine.
4. It is very useful in keeping eyes healthy.
5. Prevents constipation.
6. Helps stop strokes

Products/Preservation

Peaches are a favourite table fruit. They are soft and juicy when ripe and are mostly used as desserts. They become very delicious when cooked in syrup, and are mostly used for canning. Various preparations are canned peach, peach nector, dried peach.