PINEAPPLE

PINEAPPLE FRUIT

Do you know what pineapple fruit can give to you?

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries.^[1] It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone.^[2] The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae.^[3] Besides being produced for consumption, it can be grown as an ornamental or houseplant, obtained from the crown of a supermarket fruit.^[4] Some sources say that the plant will flower after about 24 months and produce a fruit during the following six months,^[5] while others indicate a 20-month timetable.^[4]

Pineapple can be consumed fresh, canned or juiced and can be used in a variety of ways. It is popularly used in desserts, salads (usually tropical fruit salads, but it can vary), jams, yogurts, ice creams, various candies, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail. The popularity of the pineapple is due to its sweet-sour taste. The core of the pineapple is continuous with the stem supporting the fruit and with the crown, a feature unique among cultivated fruits.^[6]

 

Unlike commonly thought, pineapple is used for many other things aside from consumption. In the Philippines, pineapple leaves are used as the source of a textile fiber called piña. This fiber can used in a variety of ways such as a wall paper and a component of furnishings.^[7]

Raw pineapple is an excellent source of manganese (45% DV in a 100 g serving) and vitamin C (80% DV per 100 g).^[12] Mainly from its stem, pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme, bromelain, which breaks down protein. If having sufficient bromelain content, pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. Pineapple enzymes can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts, but would be destroyed during cooking and the canning process. The quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not significant, being mostly in the inedible stalk. Furthermore, an ingested enzyme like bromelain is unlikely to survive intact the proteolytic processes of digestion.

Traditional Medical Use

Both the root and fruit may be eaten or applied topically as an anti-inflammatory or as a proteolytic agent. In some practices, it may be used to induce abortion or menstruation or as an antihelminthic agent. Bromelain purified from pineapple stem or fresh juice, then provided in the diet over 6 months, decreased the severity of colonic inflammation in mice with experimental colitis.