What Is Palmyra Fruit?
The key to keeping healthy and preventing illnesses like dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, as well as many other impacts of the scorching sun, is to keep your body hydrated and fed. The easiest approach to accomplish this is to consume plenty of water-rich natural drinks and foods. Fortunately, there is no scarcity of these items because Mother Nature has blessed us with a plethora of diverse sorts of nutritious and healthful fruits and vegetables. Palm fruit, also known as ice apple, is a type of fruit that can help you beat the heat by delivering appropriate hydration and nourishment. Palmyra fruit is the delicious and meaty fruit of the sugar palm tree that grows in India’s coastal regions during the summer.
Palmyra fruit has a sweet and watery flavor with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The fruit’s outer layer is gelatinous, with a sweet and dull flavor. There is a small amount of sugary coconut water, similar to refreshing water, inside the gelatinous pod. The translucent and pale white flesh of the fruit is similar to that of lychee, another excellent summer fruit. In addition to the fruit, the sap from the tree’s trunk is utilized to make a healthful and pleasant drink. Ice apple, a native of South and Southeast Asia, is a superb coolant and is frequently recommended as a drink for the hot summer months. It is a delicious summer fruit with several health benefits and nutritional value, as well as the ability to alleviate all of the difficulties associated with extreme heat. In Tamil, it’s called nungu, in Marathi, tadgola, and in Hindi, Tari.
11 Health Benefits of Palmyra Fruit
Palmyra fruit is high in vitamins and minerals and is beneficial in the treatment of diabetes. Vitamin C, iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin B, thiamine, and riboflavin are among the nutrients found in this fruit. Palmyra fruit has various health benefits due to the presence of certain vital components, including:
Strengthens your Immune System
Vitamins and minerals are required by our immune system to sustain good health and avoid sickness. As a result, palm fruit is an excellent choice because it is high in vitamins and minerals that are necessary for a healthy immune system.
Beneficial to the Digestive System
Palm fruit, also known as palmyra fruit, is a fruit that can help with digestive issues and is also used to soothe an upset stomach. Constipation can be relieved and bowel movements can be stimulated by eating palmyra fruit. This fruit can also help with stomach ulcers and acid reflux.
Acts as a Natural Coolant
Palm fruit is a natural coolant that aids in bodily cooling throughout the heat. It also helps to avoid prickly heat, dehydration, dry skin, kidney failure, and hair loss, among other heat-related issues. It not only hydrates your body, but it also aids in the replacement of nutrients and electrolytes lost as a result of heavy sweating. Ice apple quenches your thirst and gives you the energy you need to go through the day.
Aids in Weight Loss
Palm fruit is a low-calorie fruit that can help people who are attempting to reduce weight. The fruit contains a lot of water, which helps keep your stomach full for a long time. As a result, frequent snacking is reduced, which is beneficial to maintaining a healthy weight.
Treats Liver Ailments
Another of the palm fruit’s key health benefits is that it helps to treat a variety of liver problems by removing toxins through its high potassium content.
Aids in the Relief of Skin-Related Issues
Palm fruit is a good treatment for heat rashes and prickly heat, which are frequent skin concerns during the hot summer months. Applying the fruit’s flesh to the affected area has a relaxing effect and provides relief from these symptoms. It also helps to alleviate the itching that comes with these heat-related issues. The fruit’s anti-inflammatory qualities aid in the treatment of skin redness caused by extreme heat. A palm fruit poultice has been proven to be useful in the treatment of dermatitis. It can also be used safely on newborns.
Enhances Energy
One of the most important health benefits of the palm fruit is that it keeps blood glucose levels up while also providing the body with the proper mix of minerals and nutrients.
Reduces the Risk of Breast Cancer
The presence of the phytochemicals anthocyanin which may suppress the formation of tumors and breast cancer cells is indicated by palm fruit. As a result, there is yet another advantage of the fruit.
Treats Constipation
Adding palm fruit to your diet can help you get rid of constipation. On an empty stomach, you can eat the fruit or create a juice out of it.
Pregnant Women’s Health
In pregnancy, stomach discomfort and cramps are frequent. The addition of palm fruit to your diet can help with minor digestive issues as well as nausea, which is typical during pregnancy. It is also incredibly nutritious and can help feeding women increase the quality of their breast milk.
Avoids Fatigue
People who suffer from fatigue are especially exhausted during the summer because they sweat a lot. Eating the palm fruit is the most effective strategy to combat weariness.
How to Eat the Palm Fruit
Palm fruit usually has three pods, although it can sometimes have four pods. The pods are removed once the fruit has been peeled. The exterior yellowish brown skin of the pods must be removed before eating. Some people, however, prefer to consume the flesh as well as the skin. Another approach to consume the fruit is to cut the top portion of the fruit open, revealing the three holes containing the flesh. With a spoon, gently scoop out the meat and enjoy the fresh, nutritious treat. Because the fruit has very little juice, you might want to be careful while peeling it.
Traditional Uses of the Palm Fruit
In traditional local medicine, all components of the Palmyra palm have numerous medicinal benefits.
- Biliousness, dysentery, and gonorrhea are believed to be relieved by the young plant.
Young roots are diuretic and anthelmintic, and a decoction is used to treat some respiratory ailments. - The ash of the spadix is used to treat heartburn, spleen enlargement, and liver enlargement.
- A mouthwash produced from bark decoction and salt is used, and charcoal generated from the bark is used as a dentifrice.
- The sap extracted from the flower stem is used as a tonic, diuretic, stimulant, laxative, anti-phlegmatic, and amoebicide.
- The paste can also be used to cure diarrhea by rubbing it on the navel area.
- Gingivitis and mouth ulcers are treated by gargling with a tree bark decoction mixed with a pinch of salt.
- Jaggery made from the juice is a useful tonic for post-partum women to strengthen their uterine muscles.
- Gastric catarrh and hiccough can be treated with the juice of the leaf stalks and young root.
- The milky fluid produced by immature seeds is delicious and refreshing, and it helps to prevent hiccups and nausea.
- Sugar derived from this sap is supposed to be anti-poison and is used to treat liver problems.
Culinary Uses of Palm Fruit
- Boiling or roasting the fibrous outer layer of ripe palm fruits is very popular.
- In India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, the gelatinous transparent pale-white endosperm of immature fruit is a pleasant delicacy that is juicy, healthy, and edible.
- The seed’s shell can be perforated with a finger and the sweetish liquid sucked out like coconut water for refreshment.
- In Thailand, tender, nutritious endosperm is canned and exported around the world.
- Roasted, sun-dried, preserved, and boiled are all options.
- Many culinary products are made from palmyra fruit pulp (PFP), including dried PFP (punatoo), which has been consumed in North-East Sri Lanka for millennia.
- Sprouts, which are made up of the first tender leaves and fleshy hypocotyl from freshly germinated nuts, are cooked for immediate consumption, dried, stored, or roasted and mashed to produce a meal.
- The hard shell of the germinated seed is also sliced open to extract the crunchy kernel, which tastes similar to a sweeter water chestnut.