Pineapple

Pineapple
A pineapple, on its parent plant
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Bromeliaceae
Subfamily:	Bromelioideae
Genus:	Ananas
Species:	A. comosus
Binomial name
Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.
Synonyms
Ananas sativus

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit which are coalesced berries.^[1] Pineapples are the only bromeliad fruit in widespread cultivation. It can be grown as an ornamental, especially from the leafy tops. Some sources say that the plant will flower after about 24 months & produce a fruit during the following six months^[2] while others indicate a 20-month timetable.^[3]

Pineapple is eaten fresh or canned or juiced. It is popularly used in desserts, salads, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail. The popularity of the pineapple is due to its sweet-sour taste containing 15% sugar and malic and citric fruit acids. It is also high in vitamin B1, B2, B6 and C. Its protein-digesting enzyme bromelain seems to help digestion at the end of a high protein meal.

In the Philippines, pineapple leaves are used as the source of a textile fiber called piña.

Etymology

Pineapple and its cross section

The word pineapple in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). The term pine cone for the reproductive organ of conifer trees was first recorded in 1694 When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them pineapples (term first recorded in that sense in 1664 because of their resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone.^[4]

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas, the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) word nanas, meaning "excellent fruit"^[5], as recorded by André Thevenet in 1555, and comosus, "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the Ananas genus are often called pine as well by laymen.

Many languages use the Tupian term ananas. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña "pine cone" in Spain and most Hispanic American countries, or ananá (ananás in Argentina) (see the piña colada drink). They have varying names in the languages of India: "Anaasa" (అనాస) in telugu, annachi pazham (Tamil), anarosh (Bengali), and in Malayalam, kaitha chakka. In Malay, pineapples are known as "nanas" or "nenas". In the Maldivian language of Dhivehi, pineapples are known as alanaasi. A large, sweet pineapple grown especially in Brazil is called abacaxi [abakaˈʃi].

Botany

A pineapple flower in Iriomote, Japan

The pineapple is a herbaceous short-lived perennial plant which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 metres (3.3 to 4.9 ft) tall. The plant only produces one fruit and then dies. Commercially suckers that appear round the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins.30 to 100 centimetres (1.0 to 3.3 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem. In the first year of growth the axis lengthens and thickens bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers each subtended by a bract. Flower colours vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red.

The ovaries develop into berries which coalesce into a large compact, multiple accessory fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number.^[6]

Pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate and then releasing it during the day, aiding photosynthesis.

Pollination

Pollination is required for seed formation, but the presence of seeds negatively affects the quality of the fruit. In Hawaii, where pineapple is cultivated on an agricultural scale, importation of hummingbirds is prohibited for this reason.^[7] Certain bat-pollinated wild pineapples only open their flowers at night.

Nutrition

A basket of pineapples displayed in a Singapore supermarket.

Charles II presented with the first pineapple grown in England (1675 painting by Hendrik Danckerts)

Pineapple is a good source of manganese (91 %DV in a 1 cup serving), as well as containing significant amounts of vitamin C (94 %DV in a 1 cup serving) and vitamin B₁ (8 %DV in a 1 cup serving).^[8]

Pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain, which breaks down protein. Pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. The enzymes in raw pineapples can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts but it breaks down in cooking or the canning process. Though some have claimed pineapple should not be consumed by people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, or kidney or liver disease the quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not medically significant being mostly in the inedible stalk.

Consumers of pineapple have claimed that pineapple has benefits for some intestinal disorders, and others believe it serves as a pain reliever;^[9] still others claim that it helps to induce childbirth when a baby is overdue.^[10]

The Spread of Pineapple

Little is known about the origin of the domesticated pineapple (Pickersgill, 1976). M.S. Bertoni (1919)^[11] considered the Parana—Paraguay river drainages to be the place of origin of A. comosus.^[12] The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean. Columbus discovered it in the Indies and brought it back with him to Europe.^[13] The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines, Hawaii (introduced in the early 19th century, first commercial plantation 1886), Zimbabwe and Guam. The fruit was cultivated successfully in European hothouses, and pineapple pits, beginning in 1720.

The pineapple was introduced to Hawaii in 1813; exports of canned pineapples began in 1892.^[14] Large scale pineapple cultivation by U.S. companies began in the early 1900s on Hawaii. Among the most famous and influential pineapple industrialists was James Dole, who started a pineapple plantation in Hawaii in the year 1900.^[14] The companies Dole and Del Monte began growing pineapple on the island of Oahu in 1901 and 1917, respectively. Maui Pineapple Company began pineapple cultivation on the island of Maui in 1909. In 2006, Del Monte announced its withdrawal from pineapple cultivation in Hawaii, leaving only Dole and Maui Pineapple Company in Hawaii as the USA’s largest growers of pineapples. Maui Pineapple Company markets its Maui Gold brand of pineapple and Dole markets its Hawaii Gold brand of pineapple.

In the USA in 1986, the Pineapple Research Institute was dissolved and its assets were divided between Del Monte and Maui Land and Pineapple. Del Monte took variety 73-114, which it dubbed MD-2, to its plantations in Costa Rica, found it to be well-suited to growing there, and launched it publicly in 1996. (Del Monte also began marketing 73-50, dubbed CO-2, as Del Monte Gold). In 1997, Del Monte began marketing its Gold Extra Sweet pineapple, known internally as MD-2. MD-2 is a hybrid that originated in the breeding program of the now-defunct Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii, which conducted research on behalf of Del Monte, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, and Dole.

Cultivation

Southeast Asia dominates world production: in 2001 Thailand produced 1.979 million tons and the Philippines 1.618 million tons, while in the Americas Brazil produced 1.43 million tons. Total world production in 2001 was 14.220 million tons. The primary exporters of fresh pineapples in 2001 were Costa Rica, 322,000 tons; Côte d'Ivoire, 188,000 tons; and the Philippines, 135,000 tons.

An unripe pineapple fruit

A pineapple field in Ghana

Since about 2000, the most common fresh pineapple fruit found in U.S. and European supermarkets is a low-acid hybrid that was developed in Hawaii in the early 1970s.

In commercial farming, flowering can be induced artificially, and the early harvesting of the main fruit can encourage the development of a second crop of smaller fruits. Once removed during cleaning, the top of the pineapple can be planted in soil and a new plant will grow. Slips and suckers are planted commercially.

Cultivars

There are many cultivars. The leaves of the commonly grown 'Smooth Cayenne' are smooth.^[15] and is the most commonly grown world wide. Many cultivars have become distributed from its origins in Paraguay and the southern part of Brazil.^[13] and later improved stocks were introduced into the Americas, the Azores, Africa, India, Malaysia and Australia. Varieties include:

• 'Hilo': A compact 1–1.5 kg (2-3 lb) Hawaiian variant of 'Smooth Cayenne'. The fruit is more cylindrical and produces many suckers but no slips.
• 'Kona Sugarloaf': 2.5–3 kg (5-6 lb), white flesh with no woodiness in the center. Cylindrical in shape, it has a high sugar content but no acid. An unusually sweet fruit.
• 'Natal Queen': 1–1.5 kg (2-3 lb), golden yellow flesh, crisp texture and delicate mild flavor. Well adapted to fresh consumption. Keeps well after ripening. Leaves spiny. Grown in Australia, Malaysia, and South Africa.

Pineapple field, Hawaii (1958)

• 'Pernambuco' ('Eleuthera'): 1–2 kg (2-4 lb) with pale yellow to white flesh. Sweet, melting and excellent for eating fresh. Poorly adapted for shipping. Leaves spiny.Grown in Latin America
• 'Red Spanish': 1–2 kg (2-4 lb), pale yellow flesh with pleasant aroma; squarish in shape. Well adapted for shipping as fresh fruit to distant markets. Leaves spiny. Grown in Latin America
• 'Smooth Cayenne': 2.5–3 kg (5-6 lb), pale yellow to yellow flesh. Cylindrical in shape and with high sugar and acid content. Well adapted to canning and processing. Leaves without spines. This is the variety from Hawaii, and the most easily obtainable in U.S. grocery stores. Both 73-114 and 73-50 are of this cultivar.

Ethno-medical usage

Both the root and fruit are sometimes eaten or applied topically as an anti-inflammatory and as a proteolytic agent. It is traditionally used as an antihelminthic agent in the Philippines.^[16]

Pests and diseases

Pineapples are subject to a variety of diseases,^[17] the most serious of which is wilt disease vectored by mealybugs.^[18] The mealybugs are generally found on the surface of pineapples, but can also be found inside the closed blossom cups.^[19] Other diseases include pink disease,^[20] bacterial heart rot, and anthracnose.

Storage and transport

Pineapple prepared for sale in Haikou, Hainan, China.

Some buyers prefer green fruit, others ripened or off-green. A plant growth regulator Ethephon is typically sprayed onto the fruit one week before harvest, developing ethylene, which turns the fruit golden yellow. After cleaning and slicing they are typically canned in sugar syrup with added preservative.

For home use, green pineapples will ripen naturally at room temperature,^[21] though they can quickly over ripen.

Usage in culture

• In some cultures, the pineapple has become associated with the notion of welcome,^[22] an association bespoken by the use of pineapple motifs as carved decorations in woodworking.

See also

• Pineapple cutter
• Pineapple tarts
• The Big Pineapple

References

Further reading

• Francesca Beauman, 'The Pineapple', ISBN 0-7011-7699-7, publisher Chatto and Windus
• Jahn, G. C. 1990. The role of the big-headed ant in mealybug wilt of pineapple. In G.K. Veeresh, B. Malik, and C. Viraktamath [eds.] "Social Insects and the Environment." Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi, 614-615.
• Jahn, G. C. 1995. Gray pineapple mealybugs, Dysmicoccus neobrevipes Beardsley, found inside of pineapple fruit. Proc. Hawaiian Entomol. Soc. 32: 147-148.
• Jahn, Gary C., J. W. Beardsley and H. González-Hernández 2003. A review of the association of ants with mealybug wilt disease of pineapple. Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society. 36:9-28.

External links

• Pineapple Fruit Facts - Information on pineapples from California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc.

Pineapples Species Ananas bracteatus • Ananas erectifolius • Pineapple • Ananas ananassoides • Ananas fritzmuelleri • Ananas lucidus • Ananas nanus • Ananas parguazensis Topics Ananas • Azucarron pineapple • Big Pineapple • Pineapple production in Côte d'Ivoire • Dole Food Company • List of pineapple diseases • Maui Pineapple Company • Piña • Pineapple cutter • Pineapple lumps • Pineapple pit • Pineapple tart Category:Pineapples