Dragon Fruit: A ‘Crazy' Seeming Fruit Has A Powerhouse Of Uses

There’s nothing to laugh at with this insane fruit but the real fact is many are getting crazy about dragon fruit. And its quick popularity has been making some producer countries run like mad in catching up for more supply for more demands in the world market. The fruit gives the reminiscence of watermelon, kiwi, and pear or a combination of them packed with more nutrients and medicinals more than one can imagine. They call this fruit a ‘crazy’ one perhaps due to its flower that resembles a flame in explosion. Out of these flamelike flowers come some short-lived fruits appearing like brilliant pink rosebuds. This novelty fruit is now becoming popular in recent season.

- Rico R. Magda

ZEROING ON THE FRUIT

In the last edition of Fruit Logistica in Berlin, many fruit traders expressed their willingness, after tasting the fruit, to buy China’s ‘Jindu number one’ Red Heart dragon fruit with natural rose-like fragrance. The fruit grows off- season in Hainan, thus, ensuring the buyers of the regular availability of the fruit year round.

Vietnam has the largest supply of dragon fruits but the fast development of China’s huge dragon fruit production has become a big challenge for Vietnam.

The most common varieties of dragon fruits have red skin with green scales likened to the legendary fire-breathing dragon.

The fruit comes from cactus species. It belongs to the genus Stenocereus (Pitaya) and Hylocereus (Pitahaya), which refer to the tall flowering cacti species. Hylocereus cacti are indigenous in Mexico but now thriving in most of Central America as a result of introduction by Europeans. The fruit is also known as strawberry pear.

The English name of this fruit is ‘dragon fruit’ while the names attributed to the same fruit like pitahaya and pitaya come from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. In China, it’s called huolong guo, which literally means ‘fire dragon fruit.’ Dragon fruit is now widely distributed in various countries worldwide in Asian countries, USA, Israel, Australia, Cyprus, Canary Island, and elsewhere.

The sour dragon fruit with strong taste is a common fruit in some arid regions. They are a staple food source in the Sonoran Desert, which nourish a large number of natives in that area. Some sweet pitaya taste like watermelon and used in folklore medicine.