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Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2011

THE RED FRUIT OF PAPUA (BUAH MERAH PAPUA)

A few years back, people in Indonesia even in some other parts of the world was confounded with one quite big phenomenon in the world of natural medicine. The phenomenon was the discovery of the Papua Red Fruit’s potential to treat and heal several illnesses, including HIV/ AIDS. Today, we are going to talk about this particular fruit again.


The Red Fruit

The red fruit generally grows in Papua, especially on the mountain area, such as on the areas along mountain side of Jayawijaya. The plant is actually still in the family of pandanus, with the scientific name of Pandanus Conoideus. The tree can grow up to 5 branches, with 15 meters high. The leafs are similar to ribbons, but have small thorns on the edge parts. The roots are hanging in the air with the height of 1 meter from the base trunk. The fruit has a long ellipse form or sometimes a bit square, with 30-120 cm length and 10-25 cm wide. Usually the color is red, brownish red, or sometimes yellow. The skin, however, is similar with the skin of jackfruit.

People in Papua have been, for generations, consuming the red fruit along with the vegetables and several of the tuber group, such as yam and cassava. They consume it to uplift their stamina and energy. Most of them also use the red fruit for medicine, because it has the peculiarity to heal diseases, such as eyes, and skin diseases. Beside that, the red fruit is also served during rituals and traditional ceremonies.

The Benefits

The first research about the benefits of red fruit was conducted by a scientist from Cendrawasih University in Jayapura, Drs. I Made Budi, M.S. As a nutritionist and a lecturer, he carefully observed the custom habits of the traditional society in Wamena, Timika, and the villages around the Jayawijaya mountain area, who consume the red fruit. He found that the local people have bigger muscular figure, and high stamina. The physical wonder of the people is that they rarely get degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Through his research, Drs. I Made Budi, M.S., discovered that in the form of essence the red fruit contains high potential antioxidant as an active substances to prevent many illnesses, anti virus compounds and also complex vitamins and minerals. It contains carotene, beta carotene, tocopherol, and other substances that can increase endurance of a body, such as oleic acid, linoleic acid, omega 3, and omega 9.

Beta carotene inside the red fruits functions to treat cancer, overcoming anti stroke, and coroner heart disease. It slows down artery spots blockage, so that blood can flow to the heart and brain smoothly. Tocopherol functions as an anti aging, secondary antioxidant, to increase body immune system, preventing damage caused by free radicals, and has a high content of vitamin E. It is also good to cure cancer, hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and reduce bad cholesterol.

Here are several benefits believed could be obtained by consuming the red fruit.
1.     Cure eyes illnesses caused by the lack of vitamin A.
2.     Stimulate the brain function and improve intelligence.
3.     Increase sexual desire for male and fertility.
4.   Cure cancers and tumors, because of the high content of tocopherol and beta carotene. The two substances function as antioxidant, increase the body immune system, and prevent the growth of cancer cells.
5.      Prevent high blood pressure and stroke.
6.      Cure diabetes mellitus, by repairing the work of the pancreas.
7.      Cure and prevent osteoporosis, because of its high content of calcium.
8.    Help healing AIDS. The high level of beta carotene and tocopherol in the red fruit can actually stop the HIV virus from continuing to live.

Other than the benefits mentioned, the red fruit said can also cure the digesting system diseases, hemorrhoids, lungs problem, and more.

The Pros and Contras

To this day, the study and research on the red fruit is yet to be finished. The authentication of the red fruit’s power and benefits has not been done clinically. Even so, there are a lot of people who suffered from several illnesses have felt the benefits of the fruit. Some of them consumed it along with medicine from their doctors, or combined it with other herbal medicine. However, there are others who consumed it solely.

The phenomenon had triggered pros and contra among the people. There are some people who believe it straight away and use it for medication, some conduct research immediately, and some are still hesitated about it. No matter how the controversy has grown, in reality, there are many people who claimed to be cured from their illnesses after consuming the red fruit.


* Gathered from many sources.
* All pictures belong to their rightful owners... I'm just borrowing them.

 

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

DURIAN AND THE STROKE

Durian (Surio zibenthinus Murr) is one of the plants that grows on the tropical areas. The name “durian” was assumed coming from a Malay term “duri” (means thorn) and given the word “an” as the suffix, so it became “durian”. The word has come to the meaning of a fruit whose skin is filled with sharp thorns.

Durian is widely known in Southeast Asia as the King of Fruits. It is known to have been consumed since prehistoric time in the region, but has only been known to the western world for about 600 years.

Not only consumed fresh, durian flesh can also be processed into many kinds of dishes. We often see ice durian, durian flavored candy, and it even processed into one of Indonesian food ingredients called tempoyak. Tempoyak is some kind of paste made from durian flesh that has been salted and left for a few days before it is ready to be cooked.


The Nutrients in Durian

We have assumed that durian is quite a fatty fruit. It turned out that the fruit contains only 3% of fat. Even the content of fat inside avocado is about twice of it, around 6.5%. Durian also contains high amount of sugar, vitamin C, potassium, and the serotoninergic amino acid tryptophan. It is also a good source of carbohydrates, and proteins. The content of phosphor and iron inside the fruit are about 10 times of the same substances contained in bananas.

From the strong odor many believe that durian contained alcohol. Is it true? Several studies about the case did find alcohol, such as ethanol and methanol inside the fruit but the compound is known to be unstable, can easily evaporate and disappear. There are some people who hastily associate the strong odor of durian with the amount of alcohol contained inside it. They believe that the stronger it smells, the higher the amount of alcohol inside. However, up to this day there is still no agreement yet about the cause of the strong odor.

In 1995, Wong and Tie, in their research, had found 63 compounds that can easily evaporate (volatile compounds), including 30 esters, 5 ketones, and 16 sulfur compounds, which took the part on producing the odor of durian. But they never found any compounds of ethanol, methanol, ethyl metacrylate and other sulfur compounds, which had been mentioned by earlier researchers. From the researches can be concluded that consuming durian would not give the effect of intoxicated, unlike consuming liquors.

There is also a belief that consuming durian can make your body feel warm or sometimes even hot. This actually depends on how many durians a person consumes. Durian does produce pretty high amount of calories; 100 grams of durian flesh produces about 124-18805 calories. So, it is not a surprise if you consume durian in quite high amount, for example 300 grams, the calorie it produces can reach up to 500. This obviously will make the body feel warm or even hot. This fact has made many people believe that durian can also function as an aphrodisiac fruit.

What about the belief among people that durian can be lethal for people with high-blood pressure and a bad heart condition? The truth is, up to this day, there is still no scientific proof published claimed what substances contained in durian that can cause the stroke or heart attack. It is actually not the durian that causes the illnesses, but how many it is being consumed. Dr. Santoso Karo-Karo, SpJP, a cardiologist from RS Harapan Kita said that he had never forbid his patients from eating durians, as long as they eat it moderately, not too much.

So, once again, the key of consuming any food is moderation. Never consume anything more than we should. This obviously also works with durians. However, I left all the decision to you. I am not here to suggest you to consume durian whenever you want to. In the end, it is you and your doctor who know what is the best food for you to maintain your health.

 
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