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Pear Fruit (With Pictures)- Benefits of Pear Tree

Botanical Name: Pyrus communis

Family Name : Rosaceae

Pear grows on a tree with a broad pyramidal crown, leaves orbicular-ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate, flowers white, in few flowered corymbs, fruits variable, turbinate or subglobose, calyx lobes persistent, the flesh with gritty concretions.

Pears have a distinctive bell shape fruit. Some pears have knobby lobes at the base of the fruit while others are smooth at the base. The skin of the fruit ranges in color from green, yellow, red, brown, pink, or a combination of these colors.  Pear flesh is white and juicy and grainy in texture.

Pears are medium sized trees, reaching 10-17 m tall, often with a tall, narrow crown; a few species are shrubby. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, 2-12 cm long, glossy green on some species, densely silvery-hairy in some others; leaf shape varies from broad oval to narrow lanceolate. Most pears are deciduous , but one or two species in southeast Asia are evergreen. Most are cold-hardy, withstanding temperatures between -25 °C and -40 °C in winter, except for the evergreen species, which only tolerate temperatures down to about -15 °C.

Origin and Distribution Pears are original from Europe and Asia. The first cultivated races were selected from the wild varieties in the prehistoric ages. The Romans knew in the beginning 6 cultivated sorts and later mention 56 races. A late medieval Italian list mentions 232 varieties. Around 1640 in England only 60 varieties were known. In 1842 more than 700. In 1860 the American author T.W. Fields mentions 850 races. This fast increase of pear cultivars during the late 18th century can be ascribed to a few French and Belgian cultivators.

Properties of pear

Stomachic, demulcent, anti-scorbutic, anthelmintic.

Forms of Use :- Fruit is eaten raw.

Food Value of pear

Pears are consumed in India primarily as fresh fruit. A sample of pear contains: acid (as malic acid), 0.24%; reducing sugar, 8.2%; total sugars (as invert sugar), 10.8%. The minerals in pears include-boron, copper, molybdenum, zinc, cobalt, arsenic, fluorine and iodine.Reducing sugars, of which fructose is the major component, constitute over 80% of the total sugar present in pears.

Analysis of the edible portion of pear gives the following composition (per 100 gms):

Medicinal Uses & benefits

1. Pears are a good source of pectin, containing fair amount of invert sugars and thiamine (Vitamin B1).
2. They are reported to help in maintaining a desirable acid-base balance in the human body.
3. Pears have been recommended to patients suffering from diabetes because of their low sucrose content.
4. Pears are good for the skin and contain plenty of fibers.
5. They are also found to be fever reducing.
6. They are slightly sedative in action, and induce sleep when taken too much.

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

Canned pear, pear juice and dried pear are the products prepared from firm ripe pears.

For canned pear, fruits are peeled and cut into halves, and core removed. They are then kept in salt solution (1-2%) to prevent browning, syruped, sterlized and then promptly cooled in cans. Syrup-packed canned pears contain: Water, 81.1 %; protein, 1.2%; fat, 0.1 %; carbohydrate, 18.4%; fibre, 0.8% and ash, 0.2%. Juice obtained from ripe pears has excellent flavour. It is used in jellies and sherbets and after acidification as beverage and bear nectar.

Dried pear is prepared by sun-drying of pears, cut, sulphured and again kept in the sun for a day or two. Dried pear contains: Protein, 4.4-5.1 %; Carbohydrate, 63.2-64.2%; and ash 1.2-1.4%; calcium, 25-29mg; phosphorus, 29.2-39.2 mg; iron, 0.25-0.64% and potassium, 543-741 mg, 543-741 mg; betacarotene (as vitamin A), 20 IU/100 g.