ACEROLA - benefits of fruit, vitamins and properties

Acerola (Malpighia emarginata), also popularly known as cherry-of-antilles or cherry-de-bearded, has its origin in the Antilles, Central America and northern South America belongs to the family Malpighiaceae.

The fruit is born in Barbados cherry is a shrub of up to three meters tall, its trunk branches from the base and whose crown is dense with small dark green leaves and bright. Its flowers, in pink-white, are arranged in clusters and are flowering throughout the year. After three or four weeks, takes its fruiting. Being a plant is very rustic and sturdy, it spread easily by several tropical, subtropical and even semiarid. A cherry, when ripe, has a color variation that goes from red wine, going through orange. This coloration is the result of the presence of anthocyanins, particularly malvidin and pelargonidin.

Acerola is divided into two teams: red acerola acerola and orange.

cultivation

In Brazil, the cultivation of acerola enjoyed strong growth over the past twenty years, now an important crop in the Northeast, mainly in agribusiness frozen fruit pulp.

Its surface is smooth and divided into three wedges. It has three seeds inside. The flavor of the fruit is slightly acid and is similar to the scent of apple. It has vitamins A, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), calcium, phosphorus, iron and especially vitamin C, which in some varieties, enough to be present in up to 5 grams per 100 grams of pulp . This value is up to eighty times that of orange and lemon.

Variety

There are over 42 varieties of acerola which are grown in Brazil. The main ones are:
Apodi (BRS 235)
Caboclo
Cherry (BRS 236)
Frutacor (BRS 238)
Okinawa
Olivier
Roxinha (BRS 237)
Rubra
Sertaneja (BRS 152)

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