COMPOSITION AND HEALTH-PROMOTING PROPERTIES OF KIWIFRUIT AND ANNONA

Since time untold, tropical and subtropical fruits have been fundamental dietary components for indigenous populations of the warm climate areas. In many cases sometimes correctly, other times out of superstition for these populations the connection between consumption of specific fruits and health benefit has been a part of both folklore and traditional medicine. Nowadays, science has confirmed that several of those links between food and health were real. Modern clinical and biological studies, aided by quickly improving analytical techniques, are providing researchers with a seemingly endless mass of information on the reasons behind the beneficial effects of fruit consumption. In this context, after digging deeply into the composition of the best known and most diffused fruits and vegetables, researchers are shifting the focus of their attention toward tropical and exotic fruits, that is, plants that grow wild in limited areas or that are still cultivated only on a local basis. In this chapter, an overview on the benefits that may be gained from the consumption of the fruits from two genera, Actinidia and Annona, and on the chemicals responsible for such effects, the composition and properties of these fruits are presented. The former, kiwifruit, has crossed the borders of the geographical area from which originates (i.e., South-Eastern Asia) and has become available to consumers worldwide, whereas for the latter, annona, most species are still little-known in many countries. Both fruits however share a common feature: they are extremely rich in several classes of bioactive compounds, and emphasis will be placed on some of the most recent studies both from the analytical and from the clinical point of view.