Sweetsop, a heart-shaped tropical fruit from the Annona family, is typically sweeter than its cousin, the cinnamon apple. It is often used in desserts and beverages, and parts of the plant are used for medicinal and agricultural purposes. The tree requires a lot of water and only grows in tropical or subtropical climates. It is harvested in various parts of the world, including the Caribbean, Mexico, India, and Egypt.
Sweetsop, or sugar apple, is a heart-shaped tropical fruit from the Annona family that grows in many places around the world. It has the puffy appearance and cream-like flesh of its cousin, the cinnamon apple, but is typically sweeter. In fact, these two plants are so similar that in some areas, people call them both “custard apples.” The sweetsop is usually 2 to 4 inches (about 5 to 10 cm) long, ranges in color from a yellowish green to a purplish green, and has toxic black seeds.
People often eat this delicacy fresh and unprocessed, but it is also commonly prepared in various desserts and beverages. Cooks almost never reheat it, except when making jellies and preserves. It is often served as the base for an ice cold drink. Other serving suggestions include using the sweet pulp to make ice cream, sherbet, and malt-like drinks. Occasionally, winemakers ferment it into wine. To prepare the sweetsop, a cook takes out the flesh and presses it through a sieve to remove the poisonous seeds. Nearly three-quarters of the fruit is inedible.
The sweetsop tree offers benefits beyond its fruit, and various cultures develop parts of the plant for medicinal purposes. Many ingredient leaf extracts for digestive problems and dysentery. Numerous companies also incorporate leaf derivatives into baths to relieve rheumatic pain. Sometimes tonics are distilled from the bark and roots to treat diarrhea and dysentery. In some cultures, people also use parts of the plant as wound salts.
Parts of the fruit are also used in the agricultural industry. Commercial producers extract annonine, a natural insecticide, from its seeds for use in agricultural applications. Other members of the Annona plant family are generally beneficial for the same pest control and medicinal purposes.
Three trees are part of the Annona family: the sweetsop, A. squamosa; cream apple, lattice A.; and the soursop, A. muricata. The trees are about 10 to 25 feet (about 3 to 7.5 meters) tall and are nearly identical, although the leaves have slight differences. They only grow in a tropical or subtropical climate because below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), it sheds its leaves and produces very few crops. The tree requires a lot of water and typically produces the best where rainfall averages more than 27 inches (68.5 cm) per year. Normally, it will not produce fruit during a drought.
Botanists aren’t sure where the sweetsop originated, but theories include South America, Central America, and even the West Indies. Growers in the Western Hemisphere grow this crop on various Caribbean islands, Mexico, and parts of South America. Generally, in the United States, growers raise it in California, Florida and Hawaii. In the Eastern Hemisphere, growers harvest the fruit in parts of Australia, India, southern China and some tropical islands. Near the Mediterranean, they grow it in parts of Egypt, Palestine and some areas of tropical Africa. Usually, grocery stores market it near the areas where it is harvested because the fruit tends to have a short shelf life.
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