• Scientific Name: Passiflora edulis
• Origin: Brazil
• Varieties: There are approximately 400 varieties of the passion fruit plant, only about 30 produce edible fruit.
• Fruit: diameter: 5 cm; length:7.5 cm; weight: 60-100gm
• Season: all year round
• Culinary uses: fruit eaten raw; juice taken as drink

The Passion Fruit is one of the most exotic of all tropical fruit because of the magic of its aroma and the taste of its fruit. The plants name was given by the Spanish Missionaries who thought parts of the flowers looked like nails, a hammer, and a crown of thorns on Christ's head during the crucifixion. The fruit has the shape of a large egg and is deep purple or yellow when ripe and both are green when unripe. The skin is thick, tough, smooth and waxy. When ripe, the outer skin looks dry and wrinkly. The inner part of the fruit contains an aromatic mass of membranous sacs filled with an orange colored pulpy liquid and up to 250 tiny, hard, black-pitted seeds. Most passion fruit lovers do not bother to remove the edible seeds. The riper the fruit the sweeter its taste.

Nutritional Content: per 236g

• Vitamin A: 1,652 IU
• Vitamin C: 70.8 mg
• Fiber: 24.5 g
• Carbohydrates: 55 g
• Protein: 5.2 g
• Fat: 1.6 g

Health Benefits:

• Passion fruit juice is an excellent digestive stimulant and helps in the treatment of other gastric ailments.
• Passion fruit seeds contain high amount of fiber that the body needs to cleanse the colon, improve digestion, and help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
• Passion fruit is high in vitamin A which helps the body to remove free radicals that cause skin and tissue damage, and it also helps to improve our vision.
• It is also rich in Vitamin C which helps to repair tissue, helps prevent heart disease and cancer and helps our bones.
• There is also a compound in passion fruit that is believed to block histamine, reduce allergy and inflammation; passion fruit therefore has the health benefit of reducing the symptoms of asthma.
• The antioxidants found in passion fruit have been found to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

To obtain the maximum juice from the passion fruit without getting the seeds:

• Take 10 fruit and after cutting off the tops, scoop the pulp into a bowl.
• Rub through a sieve, obtaining the extract without seeds.
• Add the seeds and pulps left over on the sieve to ½ a cup of boiling water and cover and let stand for a few minutes.
• Strain through a cheesecloth, squeezing gently to extract every drop of juice.
• The resultant juice, which is in the form of a rich, natural extract, can be diluted with water or fruit juices and mixed with sugar to form a refreshing drink.

Other Uses: The rind of the fruit is chopped, dried and combined with molasses as cattle or pig food.

Caution: The roots, stem and leaves of passion fruit are poisonous.