Avocado

Avocado fruit on the tree

The avocado ( Persea americana Mill. , Also Persea gratissima ) belongs to the laurel family ( Lauraceae ). In older German publications avocato and in the countries of origin Akuakatl, Aguacate, Abacate, Palta, alligator pear called.

The up to 15 -meter-high tree originated in southern Mexico and has been cultivated by the Coxcatlán culture in Tehuacán. In the tropical and subtropical Central America, the fruit has been used for about 10,000 years. The Spaniards brought in the Caribbean, Chile and Madeira, until she found spread to Africa and Madagascar, Malaysia and the Philippines in the 19th century. Only since the beginning of the 20th century but the avocado is grown around the Mediterranean. The avocado tree is now grown in over 400 cultivars worldwide in the tropics as well as in South Africa, Israel, California, Chile, Peru, Australia, New Zealand and southern Spain (Málaga and the coast of Granada).

Etymology and history

The name " avocado " comes from the Nahuatl word back ahuacatl, which also means " testicle ". Was a popular etymological renaming it in older Spanish avocado ( " lawyer ", now abogado ), which was acquired in the 20th century into German. The modern Spanish name aguacate is borrowed directly from the Nahuatl word.

Previously, the avocado was sometimes referred to as Abacata or Abacate (after the Portuguese ) and in the German because of the consistency of the pulp as butter fruit, butter pear or because of their shape and the nature of their shell as alligator pear. In Spanish, other names are common in South America, so that originates from the Quechua word palta in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

The word " guacamole ", which refers to a Mexican avocado cream, derived from the Nahuatl word ahuacamolli, which means " avocado soup " or " avocado sauce ". 1519 Avocado was first mentioned by a European author. The Spaniard Martín Fernández de Enciso wrote in his book " Suma de que trata de todas las geografía partidas y provincias del mundo " that the avocado in Santa Marta (Colombia ) will grown.

Description

The avocado tree is evergreen and fast growing and grows in warm, tends to be drier areas. The dark green leaves are up to 45 centimeters long. The small greenish yellow flowers are in terminal or pendent inflorescences. After about four years, the tree begins to bear fruit. Basically, the young tree is always enhanced by grafting onto the corresponding surface. Due to the physiology pollination is needed for pollination two different types of trees.

Reif is the fruit when it loses its luster. The weight of the fruit can be up to 2.5 kg (varieties Choquette, and Pollock ). Avocados from tropical countries usually have a weight of 500 to 900 g The avocado fruit itself is rich in unsaturated fatty acids.

Medical Terms

Certain varieties are also used for medical purposes (for example as a bactericide and diarrheal diseases, or for controlled weight gain due to the high fat content of about 25 %).

Properties of the fruit

The avocado fruit is actually a berry, pear-shaped to oval, depending on the nature of their leathery outer shell medium to dark green ( which earned her the name alligator pear); inside there is a core, which is about golf ball size. The flesh is greenish yellow to golden yellow and oxidized to a dark color as soon as it is exposed to the air - this can be prevented by rapid addition of antioxidants such as ascorbic acid contained in lemon juice.

The fruits offered commercially are usually still hard, but can be purchased without hesitation, because they are among the climacteric fruit, so ripe after. If the shell yields slightly to pressure, the fruit is edible. The ripening process can be accelerated by the ripening gas ethylene, when the fruit wrapped for example in newspaper or stored together with apples.

Avocado fruits ripen in no case on the tree, but rather fall without picking in a hard " green" state to the ground where they mature quickly. In cultivation, the fruits are therefore picked as soon as they reach a marketable size. In the German trade is found mainly the world's most widely used type Fuerte, a pear-shaped avocado with medium green skin and bright yellow, towards the edge greenish flesh. The Fuerte variety reaches a weight of 250 to 450 g

In other countries, primarily the United States and France, on the other hand dominated the Hass variety. This variety is not a targeted breeding, but a random mutation. The Californian Rudolph Hass found the tree in the 1930s in his garden. From this a tree all of today's Hass avocado trees are descended from that are grown in Israel, California, Mexico, Chile and Spain. The hatred is less than the Fuerte, plump and has a thick, warty skin. Your maturity shown by the fact that the shell turns dark purple and even when palpation. It weighs 140-400 g

A special feature is a seedless avocado, called Avocadito, Cocktail Avocado, Cuke, fingers or mini avocado avocado. This form comes from unfertilized flowers mainly of the variety Fuerte. Previously regarded this effect as crop loss and tried to avoid. Only since a few years Avocaditos be specifically harvested. The fruits are only 5-8 inches tall, thin-skinned and can be expressed as a pate. They are supplied mainly from California, Israel and South Africa.

The major varieties

The genus Persea is divided into a number of species, but of which only three have economic significance. The over 400 commercial grades are all detected by breeding and crossing of these three in nature types: M ( exico ), W ( estin diene) and G ( uatemala ) emerged. The denominations refer mostly to the name of the breeder.

Use in the kitchen

While the shell and the kernel of the fruit are not edible, the flesh around the large nucleus is very nutritious. The avocados available in Germany are not usually sweet, some varieties of tropical countries does. The pulp of the ripe avocado is yellow to green, soft and almost creamy consistency. The avocado has a very wide margin the highest fat content of all known fruits and vegetables. The pulp is eaten raw, as long as it has not yet discolored gray or brownish. It tastes pure, lightly salted or with lemon juice drizzled on bread.

Avocado cream

Avocado cream, also known as guacamole, is the muscle of the avocado flesh. It is suitable for dipping, spreading on bread or as a filling for tortillas. To prepare the fruit flesh of a ripe avocado is mashed with a fork or pureed, then seasoned with salt or herbal salt and pepper to taste and refined with tomatoes, chillies, cucumber, garlic, onion, yogurt or many other ingredients. One can also prepare sweet, with lemon or lime and brown sugar.

Avocado cream tends to be very fast brown. Browning is produced by oxidation in the air. As an antioxidant, ascorbic acid of the lemon or lime juice can be used, which additionally round off the taste.

Salad dressing with avocado

As a salad dressing the avocado can be crushed and cooked with lemon juice, olive oil, grated chillies to taste and also with white balsamic vinegar. The vinegar as well as lemon juice slow down the browning of the avocado.

International cuisine

Avocados are also used for the preparation of vegetarian sushi in the Japanese kitchen. In the Brazilian cuisine, the avocado is " abacate vitamina de " together with milk and sugar to the so-called (actually avocado vitamin drink) and also made ​​into ice cream. Avocados are also due to their nutritional value even in the vegan kitchen greatly appreciated. In the South American Indians, the avocado was not least for the production of an alcoholic beverage called " Abacate " that inspired the Europeans to the invention of egg liqueur.

As a dessert, the avocado is used in Taiwanese, Indonesian and Filipino cuisine. Along with sugar and milk shakes arise from different consistency. The avocado is bitter with prolonged heating and can be inedible, as the court in which it was cooked.

Nutrition Facts

The following table shows the nutritional values ​​per 100 grams of raw avocado.

Other uses

The oil of avocado fruit and other plant parts has been used by the Aztecs. Mostly it is used as cooking oil, mostly it is used today in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Also furniture and vessels are manufactured from the brown wood of the tree.

Ecology

Barlow and Martin have identified the avocado as a species that evolved in an ecological relationship with large mammals. These large mammals, such as the South American giant sloth, are now extinct. They ate the fruit, including its mild toxic seed and left the seeds far away from the parent plant with its dung again. Today, the avocado tree has no natural seed dispersal technique more, by the people he is, however, preserved nevertheless.

Toxic effects on animals

In the whole plant ( foliage plant, fruit pulp, core ), the toxin Persin occurs. When the intake of larger quantities of plants, it is true of some animals as toxic. For people Persin is harmless.