Grapefruit

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Grapefruit (lat. Citrus paradisi) - Citrus tree belonging to the Rute family. Currently, there are about two dozen different varieties of this culture.

History

For the first time, grapefruit appeared in the eyes of a man in Barbados in 1650. And it acquired its first name only a century later - in 1750: the notorious Griffiths Hughes unexpectedly called this citrus fruit "forbidden fruit". In our usual hearing "grapefoot", this fruit was renamed by enterprising Jamaican traders only in 1814. It was at that time that both the volume of consumption and the popularity of these fruits increased significantly, as a result of which they began to be cultivated on an industrial scale in the USA from 1880. The largest grapefruit plantations are now in Florida and Texas. And grapefruits for supplies to European countries are cultivated for the most part in Cyprus and Israel.

Description

The grapefruit is an evergreen subtropical tree that can vary in height from five to six meters. True, sometimes trees can grow up to thirteen to fifteen meters in height.

Thin and long grapefruit leaves (their average length is fifteen centimeters) are painted in dark green tones. And the white flowers reaching five centimeters in diameter are endowed with four or five petals.

The diameter of the fruit of a juicy grapefruit ranges from ten to fifteen centimeters. Outwardly, they are somewhat reminiscent of oranges. Inside each fruit, you can find sourish pulp dividing into lobules. And the color of the pulp, depending on the variety, can vary from a rich reddish-ruby to a delicate light yellowish. The peel of grapefruits is mostly yellow, but in varieties with reddish flesh, it sometimes has a slight reddish tint.

Usage

Grapefruit fruits are almost always consumed raw, but sometimes their pulp is added to spicy or light fruit salads. Also, grapefruit is widely used to obtain delicious juice. And sometimes wonderful jam is made from it.

The essential oils contained in these fruits are actively used in the alcoholic beverage and confectionery industry, as well as in the perfumery industry - a wide variety of eau de toilette and colognes are made on their basis.

A number of substances found in grapefruit can interact actively with certain medications. Therefore, everyone who uses certain medications will not hurt to clarify how, while taking them, grapefruit can affect the body. And even more so, it is unacceptable to use grapefruit juice together with medications - it can cause an overdose effect by increasing the content of active substances in the blood.

Eating one grapefruit a day can significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. This fruit is especially useful for people with circulatory diseases and coronary heart disease, because high cholesterol has always been an additional risk factor for them. At the same time, grapefruits, endowed with red pulp, are able to lower cholesterol much more than their counterparts with yellow pulp. And grapefruit is also a wonderful dietary product that can overcome extra pounds.

Grapefruit seed extract has a potent antifungal and pronounced antimicrobial effect. And the juice of these fruits helps to increase the acidity of gastric juice, therefore it is recommended for people with low acidity.

To enjoy a grapefruit, it is cut with a sharpened knife, after which a core with a part of adjoining films is removed from each half. Then sugar is poured into the resulting depression and the gradually formed sweet juice is extracted with a spoon. And if you want to eat slices, then in order to get rid of excessive bitterness, it is necessary to remove the leathery translucent film enveloping each segment.