Jamaican Fruit and Vegetables

This is part of an ongoing project to illustrate some chemistry of Jamaican fruits and vegetables and as such it will always be in construction. Check back regularly and look for the last modified date at the bottom of each page.

Like most tropical countries, you would expect there to be a wide range of exotic fruits growing either under cultivation or wild in the country. A survey between 1950 and 1970 by the Botany Department at UWI, Mona estimated that there were 173 families of flowering flora that were native or fully naturalized in Jamaica and this was further subdivided into 996 genera or 2888 species altogether.

In terms of fruit and vegetables, here is a selection of what you might find in the market or served at the buffet table of your hotel:

• ackee (Blighia sapida)
• anatto (Bixa orellana)
• avocado pear (Persea americana)
• bananas and plantain (Musa sapientum and M. paradisiaca)
• breadfruit and roasted breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis)
• carambola (Averrhoa carambola)
• cashew (Anacardium occidentale)
• cerasee (Momordica balsamina)
• cho cho (Sechium edule)
• citrus (limes, oranges, ortaniques, tangerines, ugli, grapefruit etc)
• cocoa (from which we get chocolate) (Theobroma cacao)
• coconut (Cocos nucifera)
• coolie plum (Ziziphus mauritiana)
• custard apple (Annona reticulata)
• French peanut (Sterculia apetala)
• guava (Psidium guajava)
• guinep (Melicoccus bijugatus)
• gungo pea (Cajanus cajan)
• hog apple (Noni) "duppy soursop" (Morinda citrifolia)
• jakfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
• Jew (June) plum (Spondias dulcis)
• Ja mangoes (Mangifera indica)
• mammy fruit (Mammea americana)
• naseberry (Manilkara zapota)
• otaheite apple and its magnificent red blossom (Syzygium malaccense)
• passionfruit (Passiflora edulis)
• pawpaw (papaya) (Carica papaya)
• pineapple (Ananas comosus)
• pomegranate (Punica granatum)
• pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata)
• rose apple (Syzygium jambos)
• Jamaican red sorrel (Hybiscus sabdariffa)
• star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito)
• stinking toe (Hymenaea courbaril)
• sweetcup (Passiflora maliformis)
• sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)
• sweetsop and soursop (Annona squamosa) (Annona muricata)
• tamarind (Tamarindus indica)
• watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris)
• West Indian cherry (Malpighia punicifolia)
• yam (e.g. Dioscorea cayenensis)

In the individual pages describing the chemistry, I have attempted to identify the important sugars, acids, volatile components, pigments, etc. I have been reminded that ..

"The great poetry of the New World..... like its fruits, its savor is a mixture of the acid and the sweet. The apples of its second Eden have the tartness of experience. In such poetry there is a bitter memory and it is the bitterness that dries last on the tongue. It is the acidulous that supplies its energy. The golden apples of this sun are shot with acid. The taste of Neruda is citric, the Pomme de Cythere of Cesaire sets the teeth on edge, the savor of Perse is of salt fruit at the sea's edge, the sea-grape, the "fat-poke", the sea almond. For us in the archipelago the tribal memory is salted with the bitter memory of migration"

A quote from Derek Walcott, "The Muse of History", in Is Massa Day Dead? ed. Orde Coombs, Doubleday/Anchor, New York 1974. For further information on this famous West Indian (born in St Lucia), the 1992 Nobel Laureate in literature see http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/walcott.htm