To All,
At Whole Foods on 17 Sep 2015, I stumbled upon an ungainly, warty, asymmetrical fruit called a soursop (PLU #3381). Spanish speakers often call it a guanabana (with the accent on the second syllable). My soursop weighed 1.1 pounds, so at the breathtaking price of $9.99/pound, it set me back. $10.99. Here are pictures from the Internet that show this somewhat repellent fruit.
The Plant
The soursop is an evergreen tree that grows to about 25 or 30 feet. It is native to the New World tropics but is now grown around the world. The soursop is grown from seeds. Here are some pictures from the Internet.
- A soursop orchard.
- Capsule-like flowers, which are 1.5-2.0 inches long and may emerge anywhere on the trunk, branches, or twigs (two pictures).
- Fruit on the tree (two pictures). Just as with the flowers, the fruits may appear anywhere its trunk, branches, or twigs.
- Drawing of the various soursop plant parts.
Eating
After you buy a soursop, put it on your window sill until it is soft like a ripe avocado, and then it's ready to eat. This video shows how to prepare it; all you have to do is to cut it in two lengthwise and eat it with a spoon just like ice cream. The creamy inside studded with seeds (see picture below) screams "cherimoya" (6 June 2015). In fact, soursop is in the same genus as cherimoya, namely Annona of the custard apple family. Half of a soursop, when held in the palm of your hand, serves as its own bowl. Even before you start eating, you perceive a penetrating, sweet odor. That is the harbinger of a fruit with a strong taste.
When you dig in with your spoon, the first thing you notice is that it is very soft. I shoveled in a mouthful and found that it has a very strong, sweet flavor. I can't think of anything else that has this taste. Whereas I found the soft texture of mamey to be unpleasant, this soursop softness did not bother me. As I continued to eat, however, I found both the strong flavor and the texture harder to take, so I was glad when I finished my half. The seeds are big and easy to detect, so they do not threaten your teeth as guava seeds do (2 Nov 2014), but there are SO MANY of them that they do constitute a hassle. You spend more time expelling seeds that enjoying.
I decided to use the other half to make a drink; this video shows how. You can make a juice or a milkshake, and I decided to go the milkshake route. Since I didn't have any condensed milk, I rashly ignored the recipe in the video and instead followed the same recipe I used for the mamey milkshake, namely equal quantities of fruit, milk, and ice, thoroughly blended, though this time I decided not to add any spices. I was wondering if the mixing would tame the strong taste of this fruit. While the result was pleasing, it tamed the strong taste a little too much since the taste was too attenuated to provide enjoyment. I think I used too much milk and ice. I also made a second blunder. Before blending, I removed the seeds. While it is easy to detect and remove seeds when the fruit is in your mouth, it is difficult when a mass of the opaque, extracted fruit is sitting in a bowl. I apparently missed a seed, which when blended introduced small, gritty particles into the drink, which one had to strain out with one's teeth; this made it tedious to drink. My soursop contained 57 seeds. Some fruits contain more than 200 seeds; I hope you don't get one of these.
Here are my soursop pictures.
- Two views of the whole fruit. From one side the soursop looks nearly symmetrical, but from the other side one can see its irregularities.
- Cut in halves. You can see a few seeds.
- The remainder of a half after I have scooped out the fruit with a spoon, eaten it, and deposited the seeds on the plate.
- The two half shells after I have scooped out the fruit.
- Seeds (except for the one inadvertently included in the milk shake).
- Close-up of the glossy seeds.
The verdict is that the soursop fruit, with its strong and distinctive taste, is an experience that everyone should have once. Some will find it appealing and will want to go back for more, while others, like me, will find that once is enjoyable but enough. There is no verdict on the drink since I botched the preparation so badly, but I suspect that the soursop, like the mamey, is better as a milkshake. Also, this fruit is to be used sparingly since, at $9.99/pound, it is tied with rambutan (21 Sep 2014) and figs (22 Aug 2015) for the most expensive fruit I have tried.
Soursop in Food
The soursop is used in the preparation of a number of different foods.
- Soursop martini.
- Soursop margarita.
- Soursop ice cream.
- Canned soursop in syrup.
- Soursop juice drinks (five pictures, with the last one from Asia).
- Soursop tea, presumably made from soursop leaves (three pictures).
- Granny's Organic Soursop Leaves.
Soursop and Cancer
Outlandish health claims are made for many fruits, and I usually ignore these claims except for their humor or curiosity value. When it comes to soursop, however, the claims that it cures cancer are so widespread and clamorous and appear on so many sites on the Internet that some comment is needed. I won't promote these sites by referencing them, but the picture below is representative.
One site responds to this picture by stating:
"10,000 times stronger killer of CANCER than Chemo".
This is a misleading statement – a 1996 study found that a compound isolated and extracted from the seeds of Annona muricata (Soursop) had potency higher than that of the chemotherapy drug adriamycin on colon adenocarcinoma cells. Those results were only for one type of chemotherapy drug being used to treat one type of cancer. The cancer patient would need to eat the seeds as opposed to the actual fruit itself to receive the Annona muricata compound. Further to that, even if the seeds have cancer killing properties for even one type of cancer – we have no dosage information. There have never been human trials into the effectiveness of this compound on other types of cancer, let alone humans with cancer. Without human testing and the creation of a safe effective dose regulated drug – people consuming the seeds of the fruit open themselves up to potential toxic side effects, Parkinson's or worse based on no evidence.
According the the Cancer Treatment Centers of America website, soursop
... is purported to have medicinal qualities, with claims across the Internet that soursop extract can slow the spread of cancer or make traditional cancer therapies work better.
Experts warn against using the fruit to treat cancer. While research suggests soursop can fight cancer, it has not been studied in humans. As a result, there is no evidence of its safety or efficacy.
Soursop has been associated with many unsubstantiated claims, says Daniel Kellman, Clinical Director of Naturopathic Medicine at our hospital outside Atlanta....
A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry in 1997 suggests that soursop compounds tested on breast cancer cells in culture were more effective than chemotherapy in destroying the cells. But, without clinical trials, there is no data to support the claim.
Most studied are soursop's fatty acid derivatives called annonaceous aceteogenins. The predominant acetogenin is annonacin, which, because of its toxicity, likely would not be studied in clinical trials.
When used orally, soursop is classified as likely unsafe, said Kellman, citing two studies. Eating the fruit could lead to movement disorders similar to Parkinson's disease, according to a case-control study in the French West Indies. In addition, a study suggests tea made for the leaves and stems of graviola is associated with neurotoxicity. [Links omitted]
The conclusion from these and other sites is that soursop can kill some cancer cells in the test tube. It might be that further work will lead to treatment for some cancers. It is, however, a very long step from the current state of knowledge to having a proved, effective treatment that does not have unacceptable side effects. In short, while it is possible that at some time in the future soursop might have some role in cancer therapy, the enthusiasm shown on the Internet is premature and potentially dangerous. Soursop should be investigated rather than touted.
Miscellany
Marketeers would like a name more appealing that "soursop" and easier to pronounce that "guanabana." Despite this dissatisfaction, no new name has taken hold, though "graviola" has gained some traction in the medical community.
In the Virgin Islands, soursop is used as bait in fish traps.
Soursop wood is very light and is used for ox yokes since it does not cause hair loss on the head.
Pulverized soursop seeds are a pesticide that can be used against head lice and army worms.
Several types of spiny blowfish (see picture below) that inflate their bodies when alarmed are named after the soursop. You might watch this 14 second video of a soursop fish that shows it first inflated and then at normal size; this video begins with a frightened fisherman shrieking, "Maria!."
Party Tip
Give each guest a soursop and make sure that your guests save the seeds as they eat. Then ask each guest to use their seeds to create an art work. For example, the picture below is an art work created by the Fruit Explorer out of soursop seeds that shows the rear view of a cat. Hold a vote to determine who wins the prize for the best art work. It is a winner-take-all competition, and the prize is that the winner gets everyone's soursop seeds, from which the winner is expected to create a mural.
Rick
