LIST OF FRUITS IN THE PHILIPPINES Avocado

known as the best source of vitamin E. An essential vitamin in maintaining your health.. Research studies say, avocado is important in preventing aging and heart disease. Avocados have more carotene and than any other fruit, protect against cataracts and eye diseases. Avocado is similar to olive oil destroys pre-cancerous and cancerous cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed. Avocado helps lower cholesterol.

Atis
-Known internationally as sweetsop, sugar apple or custard apple, the Atis is one fruit you can easily grow even if you have only a square meter of soil. The atis tree grow just about anywhere a seed falls. And it grows fast so that you can get to harvest fruits in a little over a year from seedling stage. A tree bears fruits about three times a year: in the summer, during rainy season and towards Christmas. The best batch of fruits, those with thicker and sweeter flesh, comes out in the summer.And if you're interested in growing an atis tree in your backyard, here's a warning: bats and birds love the fruit. This means that you have to harvest the fruits once these are mature. Don't wait for the fruits to ripen (which would actually give you the sweetest type of atis) as the bats and birds may beat you to that one big fruit you've been reserving for yourself.

Batwan
-The taste is sour but not acidic, a tartness that promotes saliva in the mouth without impacting on the stomach, the way vinegar or even kalamansi often does. This is the kind of sourness only batwan can deliver. An important part of the souring arsenal of cooks in Negros Occidental and some parts of Panay, batwan is actually found in abundance in Bohol and Mindanao. However, there is no tradition of eating this fruit in these places said Ponchit Ponce-Enrile, general manager of the Eduardo Cojuanco, Jr. and Sons Farms in Negros Occidental. It seems that only Negrenses and cooks in certain parts of Panay have discovered the flavors of batwan. Batwan is close cousin of mangosteen, being under the genus garcinia. And indeed, they have similarities; batwan actually looks like green and stunted mangosteen.

Banana
sources of vitamin A and carotene, vitamin C and B6. A high source in potassium, maintain blood pressure level. Variety of bananas are grown in the Philippines, these varieties differ in sizes, shapes and colors. Ideal for snack are the cooking banana (saba and gardaba) for banana cue and boiled banana. Daily consumption are known to protect against cardiovascular disease and chronic disease, also preventive measures against diabetes. Luckily, abundant supply of bananas are available all-throughout the year. The widely known Del Monte and Dole bananas imported globally from the Philippines.

Calamansi
- A small rounded fruit, about 2 to 3 cm. in diameter. Calamansi juice, a popular drink for healthy minded people. Besides being a refreshing, nourishing and nutritious citrus drink, calamansi will provide you high content of vitamin C. Best medication for common colds and flu, a replacement for aspirin or pain-relieving tablets. Calamansi is highly rich in kinine a well-known factor that can lower down fever. Also helps blood circulation and normalize digestion. Drinking between 3 to 6 glass of calamansi juice per day keeps the doctor away. A great repellant for insect bites, it takes the itch away. Depending on how you want it, squeeze 10 pieces of calamansi in a glass and mix with desired water. Calamansi used as a flavoring for various food preparations like steak and fish. Squeeze over your noodles (pansit) grilled fish (sinugba) and pickled fish (kinilaw) Mixing calamansi with soy sauce is a great dipping sauce. Also used as a secret ingredient for beverages, purees and concentrates. Calamansi is widely known in Philippines as a front yard or backyard tree.

Chicos
(Sapodilla) packed with vitamin C, E and fiber. I consider this lovely delicious fruit as one of my favorite. In fact, another special fruit, to satisfy my cravings. The smooth light brown skin of Chicos is shapely attractive, eye -catching fruit. Fully ripe is amazingly sweet and juicy with a nice fragrant. Chicos is great for snack or desserts.

Carambola

Star Fruit (Balimbing or Garnati) A lovely looking attractive fruit. Once sliced, resembles exactly like a 5 pointed star. The exotic look of Carambola, adds a beautiful setting in the fresh produce section in supermarkets (imported from Asia, it is available in Netherlands) Unripe skin is lime green then to bright yellow when ripe. Carambola, contains high source of vitamin C, potassium and also rich in dietary fiber. A refreshing crispy juicy fruit eaten with peeling just like apple. Sliced Carambola, are excellent for garnishing for fresh salads, cocktails, cakes, vegetables and fruit trays.

Coconut
-a large, hard-shelled nut. On the inner side of the hard nut, is a white shell of about half a centimeter. It's the coconut flesh, nice to eat. The nut has a hollow center filled with milky fluid. Very good to take if you are thirsty! The coconut palm tree is known as the "tree of life". It yields timber, food, coconut milk, alcohol (tuba), vinegar and the tree delivers material to make all kind of products like for instance baskets, rope, brushes. The palm tree also gives the opportunity to make oil for food and cooking and is used for feeding domestic animals and for fertilizer. Last but not least, the coconut oil is used for health benefits as well. Coconut is rich in B vitamin

Durian
-a fruit that widely grows in the southern part of the Philippines, this would be the Ultimate Exotic tropical fruit for me. Before I elaborate any further, bear in mind that this fruit is not for the weak of heart (or should I say stomach?). It has an acquired taste and not everybody can appreciate the sweet, pungent aroma that this fruit emits.

Duhat
- Don't ignore these purple berries this summer when they're aplenty. And if no one has yet shown you how to eat duhat properly, read on. Put ripe berries in a deep bowl, wash them in running water then drain. Sprinkle with salt, cover the bowl with a plate and shake the bowl vigorously for about 30 seconds. Remove the plate cover. Note that you've practically made a mess in the bowl but no matter. Place a berry one at a time on your tongue and bite on the fruit tenderly. Utmost pleasure, really. But beware - the color stains clothes so eat carefully.

Dalandan
- The local orange. Or what's left of it. In the '60s, we had a variety of local oranges that were big, juicy and sweet. The ladu variety, which was common then, had a deep green and orange peeling that had the shape of, but was much bigger than, the ponkan. A really special variety which delighted many people was the suwikom variety, which had very firm but very sweet pulp bits. There were many varieties that grew in Batangas. Too bad a pestilence killed these oranges trees in the late '60s. Now we're left with these small fruits that are often too sour for eating, but are very juicy and perfect for making into juice.

Guava
- dubbed as the Superfruit is an anti-aging fruit, it keeps skin glowing and wrinkle free. Guava is the richest source of vitamin C more than orange. Guava provides 160 mg of vitamin C while orange just 69 mg of vitamin C. Rich in vitamin A, C, B3, potassium and magnesium. Guava has the highest concentration of antioxidant to fight prostate cancer. Guava taste similar to a pear. Guava, also has antihistamine properties, protects the skin from hives as well as eczema. It purifies the blood and lowers down cholesterol levels. Prevent asthma problems. Guava keeps your weight down and prevents obesity.

Jackfruit
- this would probably be the BIGGEST fruit one would come across with. Its size varies but some grow as much as 3 feet long and 20 inches in diameter wider than the trees they grow on! The skin is very rough in texture, covered with small shallow spikes. One would never think that inside this colossal piece of so called fruit, lies one of the most tantalizing delights I have ever encountered. When ripe, the skin becomes soft and in some cases, cracks open; emitting an appealing odour similar to that of an overripe banana. Coincidentally, the flavour is similar to that of a plantain and a banana.

Kamansi

- This fruit is being sold in a vegetable cart with squash and string beans. They looked like underdeveloped langka or jackfruit, little round langka with the same green spiny cover. This fruit is never allowed to mature and ripen. It is cooked in its infantile stage into a vegetable dish, with coconut milk.

Lemonsito
- This fruit is very small , about 3 cm. It is cheap and commonly used to make fresh lemon juice. By pressing the fruit the juice that comes out can be mixed with water. It is very refreshing. The leaves can be used in cooking. In some places the fruit is used to make a shampoo that is insect repelling. Lemons are healthy too. Rich in vitamin C. More advantages are: it kills bacteria when applied to seafood. Moreover, it disinfects wounds and, important in the tropics, it reduces the itch of insect bites.

Lanzones
- contains vatamins C and E, a good source of powerful antioxidants properties. Im intrigue with this fruit. With my list of Philippine fruits, Lanzones is one of them. Abundant from September to November. The texture of this translucent meat once peeled has distinctive tasty flavor. Lanzones is sweet and taste good, depending on quality and ripeness. The bigger size Lanzones has got a slightly bitter seed, whereas the smaller size gives you a lot of meat and the seeds is seemingly soft and not bitter. I guess I can eat a quarter kilo of lanzones in one setting.

Mango
- great sources of vitamin A, C and D. Mango, from its delectable fleshy cheeks bedazzle our eyes from green to orangey pink with blush of deep red and when totally ripe, bright yellow. One of the best tasting fruits ever. Everything are in it taste and texture. Philippine mango taste so good, we are obviously smitten by its succulent sweetnes and invigorating scents. Eaten bursting with ripeness, nibbling and gnawing gloriously is refreshing. Mango is rich in anti-oxidants. Eating mango protect your vision.

Macapuno
- looks like the regular niyog except that it is bigger. Farmers have a way of knocking on the nut to determine if they have macapuno or niyog. The macapuno meat is as thick as the niyog but softer, making it easy to grate. Macapuno is cooked with sugar, sometimes with dayap for flavor, and served as a dessert. Local ice cream makers also have macapuno flavors.

Mangosteen
- Mangostan, The Forbidden Fruit (The Queen of Fruits) because of its elegant look. Mangosteen, contains a wholesome food nutrients of vitamins and antioxidants, including vitamin A, C, D and E. The white soft flesh pulp is in segments just like orange. According to research, Mangosteen fresh fruit and its own juice is very helpful in preventing diseases such as: heart disease, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, cancer, diarrhea, eczema and other health problems.

Marang
- Bet you never knew how it looks, much less how it tastes. Marang smells like durian (though subdued), looks like langka, and feels like atis. Outside, it looks like a rounded brush (the one we call scuba), brown and soft, even bristles. They are ripe when they start to smell, so don't think you're getting a rotten one if the bristles start to get ugly.

Papaya
- considered as one of the nutritious fruits in the Philippines, it has a reddish-yellow flesh which is both juicy and refreshing. The outer skin is green in color and turns yellowish as it ripens. Most papayas found here are organically grown by small-scale farmers so it is abundant anywhere in the Philippines. Besides enjoying it ripe, there are other uses for it. Young papaya meat is actually an ingredient in a local dish like the Tinolang Manok( a chicken broth dish with ginger, papaya and chilli leaves). It also contains the enzyme papain, which is used for the production of meat tenderizers, pharmaceuticals and beauty products. It is very rich in vitamins A & C.

Pineapple
- an exceptional source of vitamin B, C, thiamine and dietary fiber. The juicy sweetness of this vibrant fruit is tenderly sweet with its texture, so delicious! Pineapple juice is a refreshing fruit drink. High traces of minerals (manganese) and enzymes beneficial for energy build-up and its high anti-oxidants content will disarm free radicals. A large percentage earned for this agricultural product, hence a number of pineapple plantations in the Philippines, being the 2nd largest pineapple plantation in the world.

Pomelo
-locally called Suha or Bo-ongon, the largest family member amongst citrus fruits. Pomelo , an excellent source of vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Pomelo, transparent snow-white flesh is sweet and juicy, depending on variety. Pomelo flesh varies in two colors of white and pink. Some can be mild in taste. Pomelo fruit is sweet and delectable. Chinese strongly believe that pomelo is a sign of good fortune and prosperity, if eaten regularly good things can happen. Pomelo weigh between 1 and 3 kilo.

Rambutan
-about 5 cm in diameter is a hairy-skin fruit. Rambutan tree bears fruit from May to September. Good source of vitamin C, calcium, protein and iron. Unripe Rambutan, yellowy-pink in color, ripe color turns to dark red, once sliced the white fleshy meat is very sweet.

Santol
- round and as big as a big apple. Inside the fruit there is a white juicy pulp around 3 to 5 brown seeds. The seeds are up to 2 cm long. The pulp is mostly sub-acid or sour. When the fruit is not ripe, the fruit is very sour. The Filipinos like it in that (sour) condition and eat this fruit with some salt. The fruit is usually consumed raw without peeling. In the local markets of the Philippines the santol is always for sale. Santols are also used to make marmalade. In glass jars the marmalade is exported from the Philippines to oriental food dealers in Europe and the United States.

Sineguelas
- Many people always associated sineguelas with the spookiness of its tree before it bore fruit. The sineguelas tree sheds off all its leaves before it flowers, and the fruits appear just in time for the summer. Wait for the fruits to turn red because that's when they're sweet and juicy. Nutritionists tell us that the sineguelas is loaded with Vitamin C.

Tambis
- Makopa (in Tagalog) called water apple fruit, is a bell shape fruit, labeled as a thirst- relieving fruit. Tambis offers substantial source of vitamin C for healthy bones, muscles and teeth. Varieties come in small and larger variety, in white, pink, green and red. Keep in mind, red is the sweetest. The juicy tambis flesh, taste quite similar to a watermelon. Tambis or Makopa tree are everywhere in Philippines.

Tamarind
- (Sampalok or Sambag) Tamarind, high source in Vitamin D and calcium. Tamarind tree grow up to 20 meters in height with its unique leaves that will close up at night. Tamarind fruit, size varies from 2 to 8 inches long, swirl-curved like a legume. Mature tamarind can be eaten but sour in taste. Fully ripe tamarind, shells are brittle and can be easily crack open with a sticky fiber edible flesh. Tamarind, commonly used to flavor preserves. The tamarind leaves are used as flavoring for fish and meat soup (called sinampalukan soup) Yummy sweet tamarind preserves (tamarindo) Leaves can be used in herbal tea, also quite an effective remedy for reducing malaria fever outbreak. Leaves and flowers boiled (or dried) medicate swollen joints, boils and sprain muscles. It can be used as antiseptics. Tamarind is an excellent remedy for gastric digestion problems and minor cardiovascular problems.

Watermelon
-has a great source of vitamin A, C and B6. Watermelon, completely packed with all the nutrients your body needs. Practically all vitamins and minerals are in it. For snack, much better eating a serving or slices of watermelon, rather than chocolate chip cookies, cakes and other junkfoods.