The seasonal African star apple: Highlighting the health benefits of Agbalumo
Story from, Jamila Yunusa SULEIMAN.
It’s the season again! It’s that period we see this fruit almost everywhere, ranging from the sour ones to the very sweet ones.
In Nigeria, the African Star apple is popularly known as Agbalumo in the Southwest, Udara in the Southeast and Agwaluma in the North. The African Star apple grows is mostly cultivated in west African countries like Republic of Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Ghana. Its scientific name is Chrysophyllum albidum, and it belongs to the Sapotaceae family.
This fruit has a sweet and sour taste. It is delicious and has a chewing gum-like texture because its tree secretes a whitish sap to the fruit hence the chewing gum-like texture. It’s sticky nature doesn’t cause a fuse as it’s sensational sweet taste settles the buds.
They can consumed as snack or used as flavour for drinks or beverages. The tree bears it’s fruit from December to March.
African star apple has lots of benefits due to its nutritional content. This fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers, antioxidants, and water. It contains minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, zinc.
The health benefits of African Star apple are as follows:
1. African Star apple contains phenols, alkaloids and flavonoids which are antiinflammatory properties, thus reducing inflammation in the body. It’s anti-inflammatory properties could also prevent the growth of cancerous cells.
2. African Star apple richly contains natural antioxidant such as flavonoids and vitamin A, E and C, which prevents cell damages and long-term health conditions such as cancer, diabetes and and heart related conditions by detoxifying the body.
3. Consuming African star apple can treat diarrhea and improve bowel movements because of the high pectin and fiber contents. It’s fiber content could also help control weight gain and prevent obesity.
4. This fruit is an effective dietary supplement to manage diabetes because of its high fiber content, and it is scientifically evidential that fiber helps with blood sugar control.
5. The consumption of African star apple could give you a radiating skin due to its Vitamin C content. It contains more Ascorbic acid than orange. It also help to prevent scurvy.
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6. African star apple is a healthy snack for people with hight blood pressure as it contains little sodium and high level of potassium.
7. Research has proved that extracts from the seeds of African star apple is used to heal skin infections because they contain antibacterial and antifungal components.
However, we must not be carried away by the sweet sour sensation of African star apple, it should be consumed in moderation, too much of everything has adverse effects.
