Custard apple.jpg
Health benefits of custard apple (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)
Custard apples contain anti-oxidants like Vitamin C, which helps to fight free radicals in our body. It is also high in potassium and magnesium that protects our heart from cardiac disease.
Not only that, it also controls our blood pressure. Custard apples contain Vitamin A, which keeps your skin and hair healthy. This fruit is also known to be great for eyes, and cures indigestion problems. It's important to include this fruit in your diet, as the copper content helps to cure constipation, and helps to treat diarrhoea and dysentery.
As they are high in magnesium, they equalise the water balance in our body, which helps in removing acids from the joints and reduces the symptoms of rheumatism and arthritis. If you feel tired and weak more often than usual, then have this fruit in your daily diet, as the potassium present in it will help to fight muscle weakness.
It is also good for people suffering from anaemia, as it this fruit is high in calorie. And if you want to put on some weight, include this in your daily diet chart. Custard apple contains natural sugar, and hence make great nutritious snacks and even desserts.
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this topic on other bookmarking websites.
Custard apple is best fruit which boosts several health nutritional benefits.It is aristocrat of fruits.It is a well balanced in providing minerals, fiber,vitamin-c,vitamin-a.It works as anti oxidant for body.It help in curing indigestion problems, diarrhoea and dysentery.It is the best for the people suffering from anaemia.
* The bark of custard apple tree can be used to stop diarrhea in children and adults. In addition, the plant is effective to treat diabetes.
* Its fruit is used to make a hair tonic in some parts of India.
* The plant bears some amazing medicinal qualities, like serving as an insecticide, antiovulatory and abortifacient.
* The grounded seeds can be applied on hair, to get rid of lice. However, make sure that it does not come in contact with ice or else, it can irritate the eye, leading to blindness.
* Custard apple can treat burning sensation, as it is an effective coolant.
* It is used to produce sugar wine apple and is the perfect plant for indoors.
* The crushed leaves of the tree are used to treat hysteria (fearful state of mind) and fainting spells.
* The treatment of ulcer, wound, dysentery and other ailments is also done by its concentrated leaf extract (in which the leaf is boiled and its essence is extracted).
Caution
* The good part of custard apple tree is that its remains disease free most of the time; however, it is susceptible to fungus and wilt.
* Ants can create problems for the fruit, by producing mealy bugs on it.
* The roots of the tree are quite powerful and can cause abortions; hence, expecting mothers should take care while eating the herb.
The custard apple also grows on the slopes of the Andes and in several parts of Asia. The custard apple fruit is generally priced at the higher side because of the difficulty in transporting these (custard apples are soft and fleshy, with hard exteriors). This fruit with a sugary, grainy taste is rich in iron, niacin and calcium, and is also rich in calories.
So, what is a custard apple? It isn’t an apple and neither is it a dessert. Custard apple is fruit with a sweet taste, which measures about 8-16 cm in diameter. This fruit can be round, heart-shaped or irregular. The skin that covers this fruit is thin but tough and generally green or brown in color. Once you break open this skin, you’ll find thick, creamy flesh surrounding the seeds. Sugary and granular, it’s this custard like texture that gives the fruit its name. An evergreen plant that grows up to 6 meters, the custard apple plant bears flowers and fruits in the mature branches.
Custard apples, with its high calories, natural sugars and delicious taste, are good as a dessert and as a nutritious snack. Custard apples can be made into shakes or smoothies, or even into natural ice creams. It is good for those who have hyper thyroidism or want to gain weight – a mixture of honey and custard apple is supposed to help people add on those much-needed calories. Let’s looks at some other custard apple nutritional facts.
Custard Apple Health Benefits
* Custard apples are packed with vitamin C, an antioxidant that can combat the free radicals in the body.
* The fruit also has vitamin A, which is good for healthy skin, better vision and for healthy hair.
* The magnesium in custard apples can protect the heart from cardiac diseases and can relax the muscles.
* Custard apples are also rich in vitamin B6 and potassium.
* Custard apples are also rich in copper and have plenty of dietary fiber, which is good for keeping the digestive tract healthy and aids digestion as well prevents constipation.
* Custard apples have low levels of fat, which is good for health.
* It is believed that a paste made with the creamy flesh of the fruit can be used as a balm to treat boils, abscesses and ulcers.
* Custard apples can be sun-dried and then ground into a powder, which can treat dysentery and diarrhea.
* Custard apples also act as coolants, stimulants and expectorants.
The custard apple fruit is taken but naturally from the custard apple tree. This tree is not very attractive to look at. It stands erect with a rounded or spreading crown. The trunk is about 10-14 inches thick. These custard apple trees grow from 4.5-10 meters long. The deciduous leaves of this tree can be either oblong, alternate or narrow lanceolate. These leaves do not have a pleasant smell but are wide with conspicuous veins. This tree is often made up of long drooping branches that can touch the ground. These trees have many light yellow trumpet shaped flowers that emit a sweet fragrance in the evening. Only a small number of these flowers will set fruit. This tree belongs to the Annonaceae family of trees.
The custard apple fruit is a sweet fruit that has many benefits. Some of these benefits are:-
1. It is low in calorie content and therefore good for maintaining optimum health.
2. It contains Vitamin A which is good for the skin, hair, eyes.
3. It helps in digestion as it is a rich source of dietary fiber.
4. It is a coolant, stimulant and expectorant.
5. It has healing properties as well – the flesh can be applied on boils, abcessess and ulcers.
6. The magnesium in custard apples helps to protect the heart from cardiac diseases. It can relax the muscles as well.
7. Custard apples can also be used to treat dysentery and diarrhea.
8. It is good for anemic people.
9. The potassium present in a custard apple helps fight muscle weakness.
10. It is also a rich source of magnesium. It therefore helps to equalize the water balance in the body and this helps in removing acids from the joints. It is thus beneficial for rheumatic and arthritic patients.
This fruit is also known as Cherimoya in the USA. They are considered an exotic fruit in the USA and are in high demand there.
It is a small tree with a height of 3-8 meter. The Custard Apple tree has leafy branches with thin, dark brown to grayish bark. Leaves of this tree are oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, which are 5-15 cm long and 2-5.5 cm wide. The flowers are fragrant, varies from creamy-yellow to greenish colour. The fruits of Custard Apple tree are ovoid in shape that measures 5-12 cm in diameter. On maturing, these fruits turn yellowish-green colour. The ripen fruits are marked with prominent scales and filled with an edible, juicy, pulp surrounding to the smooth, shining, brownish-black seeds.
These Custard Apple trees are used in different medicinal purposes throughout the country. The ripe fruit of this tree possesses astringent, cooling, febrifugal and pectoral properties. It works as a tonic for the blood and improve muscular strength. It is excellent for the digestive system and is prescribed for vomiting, diarrhoea, dysentery and vertigo.
The fruits of the Custard Apple tree are of great medicinal value. The dried, powdered, unripe fruits are considered effective in healing ulcers, and are used as an insecticide, particularly for lice. Both the ripe pulp and crushed leaves are mixed with salt and applied as a poultice to hasten suppuration of boils and to relieve pains and swellings.
The leaves of these Custard Apple trees are used to prevent bedbugs and maggots, and are also used to extract guinea worms. These leaves possess stimulant, anthelmintic and insecticidal properties. The tea made from these leaves is used to recover from fever. Fresh leaf-juice is applied to the nostrils in cases of hysteria and fainting. The leaves and fruits of Custard Apple trees are used for the treatment of tumours and the leaf extracts have anti-cancer properties.
Another major part of this plant is the root which has an important medicinal property. These roots are reported to be diuretic and a strong purgative which are used for the disease of acute dysentery. They are also used for the treatment of depression, spinal diseases, asthma and fever. The seeds are used as a contraceptive and as an abortifacient.
The seeds of the Custard Apple are known for their insecticidal and pesticide properties. These are strong irritants to the conjunctiva and have been reported to cause blindness.
Sugar Apple is juicy and creamy fruit, it has a white pulp that contain up to 40 black seeds. The exterior is rough, knobbly, grayish-green. The best way of eating this delicious fruit is to split open the fruit, scoop a spoonful of pulp into the mouth, enjoy the fleshy segments while separating the hard seeds in the mouth and spitting them out.
Sugar apple contains no sodium they are high in carbohydrates and rich in calcium, vitamin C and phosphorus, and with a sugar content of about 50-50 (glucose and sucrose). This fruit is also considered as a good tonic in Ayurveda. It enriches blood and is known to increase muscular strength.
Medicinal Uses:
* The leaves served as a purgative.
* Bark decoction is used to stop diarrhea.
* Decoction of the leaves and/or root is taken in cases of dysentery.
* Decoction of the leaves is good to cure diabetes.
* The leaves are applied to abscesses and open wounds and used to cure skin itches.
* The crushed leaves are sniffed to overcome fainting spells and hysteria,
* The mashed, ripe fruit, mixed with salt, is applied on tumors.
* Decoction of the leaves is used to aid digestive problem, and to treat colds.
* Decoction of the leaves is employed in baths to alleviate rheumatic pain
* Decoction of the leaves is used to clarify urine.
* The seeds immerse in coconut oil is a traditional treatment for head and body lice. The seed is also made into powder and can be applied on head to kill lice in hair.
