Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Some Interesting Facts about Rose Apple!

Common names: Rose apple (general Name), jambosier (in French) plum rose or Malabar plum (in English). Origin: East Indies and Malaya.
It is also cultivated and naturalized in many parts of India, Ceylon, former Indochina and the Pacific Islands.
Appearance: The rose apple tree may be merely a shrub but is generally a tree reaching 25 or even 40 ft (7.5-12 m) in height, and has a dense crown of slender, wide-spreading branches, often the overall width exceeding the height. The flowers are creamy-white or greenish-white, 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) wide, consisting mostly of about 300 conspicuous stamens to 1 1/2 in (4 cm) long, a 4-lobed calyx, and 4 greenish-white, concave petals.
There are usually 4 or 5 flowers together in terminal cluster. The fruit is nearly round, oval, or slightly pear-shaped, 1 1/2 to 2 in (4-5 cm) long,with smooth, thin, pale-yellow or whitish skin, sometimes pink-blushed, covering a crisp, mealy, dry to juicy layer of yellowish flesh, sweet andresembling the scent of a rose in flavor.


 Nutrition in Rose Apple :Minerals
protein 0.5-0.7 g
fat 0.2-0.3 g
iron 0.45-1.2 mg
calcium 29-45.2 mg
carbohydrate 14.2 g
Fiber 1.1-1.9 g
calories 56

Rose Apple Facts:
• Rose apples bruise easily and are highly perishable.
• The fruit is non-climacteric.
• Rose apples are mostly eaten out-of-hand by children.
• The rose apple trees bloom and fruit sporadically nearly all year, though somewhat less in summer than at other times.
• A mature rose apple tree will yield 5 lbs (2 kg) of fruit each season. The fruits are, of course, very light in weight because they are hollow, but this is a very small return for a tree that occupies so much space. The fruiting period varies in different parts of India.
• Leaves were used in the perfume industry.
Rose Apple good for brain and Liver:
• The fruit is regarded as a tonic for the brain and liver. An infusion of the fruit acts as a diuretic. A sweetened preparation of the flowers is believed to reduce fever.
• The leaf decoction is applied to sore eyes, also serves as a diuretic and expectorant and treatment for rheumatism.
• The juice of macerated leaves is taken as a febrifuge. Powdered leaves have been rubbed on the bodies of smallpox patients for the cooling effect.
Rose Apple arrests Diabetes, Asthma and Dysentery:
• The seeds are employed against diarrhea, dysentery and catarrh.
• It has been claimed that an infusion of roasted, powdered seeds is beneficial to diabetics. The seeds have an anesthetic property.
• The decoction is administered to relieve asthma, bronchitis and hoarseness.
How to buy fresh Rose Apple?
• Select firm, bruise-free rose apples.  The color can be anything from dark green, to yellow, pink, orange, bright red, dark red or even a combination.  It all depends on the variety.  And color is not really how you tell when a rose apple is ripe. They should be crisp and firm.
• The key will be to ask the farmer which is ripe.  He will know because it is calculated from the number of days since the trees flowered.  And he will track that date carefully, if he's a good apple grower!
•  Rose Apples ripen from the outside of the tree towards the center, so the rose apples out the outside of the tree will ripen first.  Picking rose apples directly from a tree is easy. 



1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your reply to my question, I just found this article, it's very informative and great you are loading so much info about different fruits.

    ReplyDelete