Passiflora edulis is a vine species of passion flower that is native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina. Its common names include passion fruit, passionfruit, and purple granadilla.
It is cultivated commercially in warmer, frost-free areas for its fruit and is widely grown in Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, the Caribbean, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Portugal (Madeira), Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, South Africa, United States (California, Florida, and Hawaii), Venezuela and Philippines.
The passion fruit is round to oval, either yellow or dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds. The fruit is both eaten and juiced; passion fruit juice is often added to other fruit juices to enhance the aroma.
The genus Passiflora (Passifloraceae) is definitely the wealthiest in fruit varieties with more than 60 examples. A number of varieties may also be of decorative interest due to the single, magnificent type of their flowers, plus some can be used for their sedative, antispasmodic, anti-bacterial as well as anti-insect qualities. A number of grown varieties are explained.
Banana Passion fruit: Banana passion fruit (P. mollissima)-curuba in Colombia, tacsos in Ecuador and tumbos in Bolivia and Peru-is an oblong fruit Six to ten cm lengthy and 3 to 5 cm in diameter, with additional or even much less circular extremities. They weigh 50 to 150 g. The pericarp is pale yellow, green in rare cases, pretty much pubescent, thin and versatile yet leather like. The pulp forms 60 % of fruit weight and is also salmon pink to dark orange. It’s got lower level of acidity and is extremely agreeably fragrant but usually astringent.
Passion fruit in addition benefits people who consume it through providing the body with higher dosages of Vitamin A as well as C. Vitamin A assists the body to get rid of free-radicals that can cause skin as well as tissue damage, also it helps you to enhance our eyesight. At the same time Vitamin C helps you to restore tissue, aids in preventing cardiovascular disease as well as cancer and enables our bones.
Now, one of the numerous health advantages of passion fruit is always that its seeds (one cup) consists of nearly 25 grams of dietary fiber. Passion fruit seeds are a good method of obtaining fiber that this body requires for colon cleansing, increase digestion of food, as well as assist in preventing heart attacks as well as heart strokes.
Delicious, passion fruit is rich source of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and fiber. 100 g fruit contains about 97 calories.
The fruit is a very good source of dietary fiber. 100 g fruit pulp contains 10.4 g or 27% of fiber. Good fiber in the diet helps remove cholesterol from the body. In addition dietary insoluble fiber by acting as a bulk laxative helps protect the colon mucous membrane by decreasing exposure time to toxic substances in the colon as well as binding to cancer-causing chemicals in the colon.
Passion fruit is good in vitamin C, providing about 30 mg per 100 g. Vitamin-C (ascorbic acid) is a powerful water soluble anti-oxidant. Consumption of fruits rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against flu-like infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.
The fruit contains very good levels of vitamin-A (provides about 1274 IU per 100 g), and flavonoid antioxidants such as ß-carotene and cryptoxanthin-ß. Current research studies suggest that these compounds have antioxidant properties, and along with vitamin A are essential for good eye-sight.
Vitamin A is also required maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin. Consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamin-A, and flavonoids helps to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.
Fresh granadilla is very rich in potassium. 100 g fruit pulp has about 348 mg of potassium. Potassium is an important component of cells and body fluids, and helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure.
Furthermore, granadilla is a very good source of minerals. Iron, copper, magnesium and phosphorus are present in adequate amounts in the fruit.
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