Pineapple

Pineapple
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For other uses, see Pineapple (disambiguation).
Pineapple

A pineapple, on its parent plant
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae

(unranked): Angiosperms

(unranked): Monocots

(unranked): Commelinids

Order: Poales

Family: Bromeliaceae

Subfamily: Bromelioideae

Genus: Ananas

Species: A. comosus

Binomial name
Ananas comosus
(L.) Merr.
Synonyms
Ananas sativus


Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit which are coalesced berries.[1] Pineapples are the only bromeliad fruit in widespread cultivation. It can be grown as an ornamental, especially from the leafy tops. Some sources say that the plant will flower after about 24 months & produce a fruit during the following six months[2] while others indicate a 20-month timetable.[3]

Pineapple is eaten fresh or canned or juiced. It is popularly used in desserts, salads, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail. The popularity of the pineapple is due to its sweet-sour taste containing 15% sugar and malic and citric fruit acids. It is also high in vitamin B1, B2, B6 and C. Its protein-digesting enzyme bromelain seems to help digestion at the end of a high protein meal.[4]
Etymology

Pineapple and its cross sectionThe word pineapple in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). The term pine cone for the reproductive organ of conifer trees was first recorded in 1694. When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them pineapples (term first recorded in that sense in 1664 because of their resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone).[5]

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas, the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) word nanas, meaning "excellent fruit",[6] as recorded by André Thevet in 1555, and comosus, "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the Ananas genus are often called pine as well by laymen.

Many languages use the Tupian term ananas. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña "pine cone" in Spain and most Hispanic American countries, or ananá (ananás in Argentina) (see the piña colada drink). They have varying names in the languages of India: "Anaasa" (అనాస) in telugu, annachi pazham (Tamil), anarosh (Bengali), and in Malayalam, kaitha chakka. In Malay, pineapples are known as "nanas" or "nenas". In the Maldivian language of Dhivehi, pineapples are known as alanaasi. A large, sweet pineapple grown especially in Brazil is called abacaxi [abakaˈʃi].

Botany

A pineapple flower in Iriomote, JapanThe pineapple is a herbaceous short-lived perennial plant which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 metres (3.3 to 4.9 ft) tall. The plant only produces one fruit and then dies. Commercially suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 centimetres (1.0 to 3.3 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem. In the first year of growth the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. Flower colours vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red.
Pollination
Pollination is required for seed formation, but the presence of seeds negatively affects the quality of the fruit. In Hawaii, where pineapple is cultivated on an agricultural scale, importation of hummingbirds is prohibited for this reason.[8] Certain bat-pollinated wild pineapples only open their flowers at night.

Nutrition

A basket of pineapples displayed in a Singapore supermarketPineapple, raw Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 202 kJ (48 kcal)
Carbohydrates 12.63 g
Sugars 9.26 g
Dietary fiber 1.4 g
Fat 0.12 g
Protein 0.54 g
Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.079 mg (6%)
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.031 mg (2%)
Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.489 mg (3%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.205 mg (4%)
Vitamin B6 0.110 mg (8%)
Folate (Vit. B9) 15 μg (4%)
Vitamin C 36.2 mg (60%)
Calcium 13 mg (1%)
Iron 0.28 mg (2%)
Magnesium 12 mg (3%)
Phosphorus 8 mg (1%)
Potassium 115 mg (2%)
Zinc 0.10 mg (1%)
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient database


Charles II presented with the first pineapple grown in England (1675 painting by Hendrik Danckerts)Pineapple is a good source of manganese (91% DV in a 1 cup serving), and also contains significant amounts of vitamin C (94% DV in a 1 cup serving) and vitamin B1 (8% DV in a 1 cup serving).[9]

Pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain, which breaks down protein. Pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. The enzymes in raw pineapples can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts, but it breaks down during cooking and the canning process. Though some have claimed pineapple should not be consumed by people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome or kidney or liver disease, the quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not medically signifiDistribution
The plant is indigenous to South America, though little is known about the origin of the domesticated pineapple (Pickersgill, 1976). M.S. Bertoni (1919)[12] considered the Parana—Paraguay river drainages to be the place of origin of A. comosus.[13] The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean. Columbus discovered it in the Indies and brought it back with him to Europe.[14] The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines, Hawaii (introduced in the early 19th century, first commercial plantation 1886), Zimbabwe and Guam. The fruit was cultivated successfully in European hothouses, and pineapple pits, beginning in 1720.
cant, being mostly in the inedible stalk.
Cultivation
Southeast Asia dominates world production: in 2001 Thailand produced 1.979 million tons and the Philippines 1.618 million tons, while in the Americas Brazil produced 1.43 million tons. Total world production in 2001 was 14.220 million tons. The primary exporters of fresh pineapples in 2001 were Costa Rica, 322,000 tons; Côte d'Ivoire, 188,000 tons; and the Philippines, 135,000 tons.


An unripe pineapple fruit
A pineapple field in GhanaSince about 2000, the most common fresh pineapple fruit found in U.S. and European supermarkets is a low-acid hybrid that was developed in Hawaii in the early 1970s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple