They are easy to grow across a wide range of continental, temperate climates.
They do have a downside though: unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome.
Here are some of the cultivars that are known to have low levels of acetogenins: Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman, Wells.
> Sensitivity to acetogenin compounds may be limited to those with a specific genetic predisposition in Guadeloupe
Also says the FDA says there's nothing to worry about.
> Kentucky State University asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an opinion on this topic, and their conclusion was that pawpaw has a long history of food use and the FDA does not currently have any evidence that pawpaw is unsafe to eat.
I didn't read your study as a warning against their consumption rather that it could explain the prevalence of Parkinson's like symptoms in a specifically genetically predisposed population in Guadeloupe. And that at least young people's symptoms went away when they stopped consuming anonna fruit products. ("Younger people who had symptoms and stopped consuming Annona products reversed their symptoms") Did I miss something?
The link also seems to think it could be useful in treating cancer, demonstrating in vivo activity.
I’m not a doctor but this seems to read more like the high oxalic acid content warnings on things like starfruit. If you’re sensitive don’t eat it, and if you’re not, try and eat other things once in a while and stop worrying so much.
I used to forage pawpaws and sell them at a farmers market. When I started to learn of the potential health risks I stopped. Even if the chance was slim, I didn’t want to be the cause of someone’s health issue.
> unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome.
Although acetogenins are very neurotoxic, they also have a fairly low bioavailability when the ripe fruits are eaten out of hand.[1] If you stick to eating only one or two fruits per day for the few weeks they're in season, you're unlikely to develop progressive supranuclear palsy.
It's really if you're doing things to increase the bioavailability, like brewing the leaves into tea, cooking the fruit with fats, infusing the fruit into alcohol, etc. that you're more likely to run into issues. In the 400+ years of people eating the fruit in the United States, there is exactly one death associated with pawpaws, and that happened to an orchardist who had been eating the fruit for 30 years straight. Had they been aware that their PSP symptoms were being caused by pawpaw consumption, they could have stopped eating the fruit after 15 years and likely would have been fine.
Keep in mind also that pawpaw consumption likely also reduces your risk of cancer, and since you're much more likely to get cancer than PSP, moderate pawpaw consumption is almost certainly a net positive for your health. There is also some new research that's come out within the last few weeks suggesting that metformin (also thought to be a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor) might reduce your risk of covid, so perhaps the fruit even has that going for it as well.
Regardless, given that you can talk with plenty of folks who have eating 2,500+ over their lifetimes who don't seem to be having any ill effects, the average person probably doesn't have a whole lot to worry about by eating a handful of pounds of fruit per year.
[1] Timothy Lane claims the bioavailability of the different acetogenins generally ranges from 1 - 5%, which seems about right although I have not fact checked this extensively myself.
Many years ago I tasted a ripe cherimoya from a farmer's market in Cambria, CA. It ruined me and sent me on a neverending and expensive quest to find another ripe cherimoya in a grocery store. The fruit was amazing, save for the giant seeds. Alas I have never found another one as good as that. Most of the time you spend $7+ only to find you have yet another bad specimen.
One of my favourite fruits. Now more widely available in Europe thanks to farmers starting to produce them in Southern Spain - you can find them in the UK at Asian food shops for ~£2 each. Just leave to ripen until soft, otherwise won’t be nice.
Would love to find a good exotic fruit wholesaler in London/UK for better pricing!
Do you have any other sources for health concerns about pawpaws? This slide deck jumps all over the place and has a big disclaimer up front that it is educational only and not intended to actually mitigate any disease.
The toxicity of pawpaws when eaten frequently is well-documented, and should you type your question into a search engine rather than the comment box you would find no shortage of answers.
In the Midwest there's some kind of disease, I think it's a fungus, that has killed pretty well all native trees, and will kill them if you plant them.
Source: the three groves we used to have, and the trees that keep dying when I plant them in my yard.
I love pawpaws. Had never heard of them until I move to the southern US. Now I can't wait for fall. We freeze them and eat them like a custard.
Another favorite fruit I'd never heard of but is native to the southern US is passion fruit. My kids sit in the field eating them all afternoon most days in September.
Very certain. The colloquial term is "maypop" and the scientific term is passiflora incarnata. There are numerous species, this is the most northern and its native to the southern US.
I’ve had pretty easy access to wild pawpaws and tried them a bunch over the past couple decades. I’d say they are not for everyone. I find the initial flavor ok, quite mild, with a weird dry/bitter aftertaste that I don’t enjoy. I don’t bother picking them anymore.
Definitely worth seeking out and trying if you are curious. But I think their reputation for tastiness has been enhanced by the difficulty of getting them. Only folks who truly love them put in the work (like this guy) to evangelize them. And in general, rarity tends to make things seem more interesting.
This isn't textbook Baader–Meinhof, but after 4 decades of never consciously hearing about this fruit I've now encountered it three times in one week: [1] on the allowed low fodmap diet, [2] in the lyrics of a jungle book song, and [3] this article. My family is now on a mission to find one and taste test.
If anyone wants to try one and will be in the St. Louis area in late September, let me know (e-mail is my profile). There are at least 100 pawpaw trees in the woods behind my house and there's at least a dozen pieces of fruit ready to be picked that time of year.
Is it me, or does that picture look like poison ivy halfway down the page where he says:
"and possibly two smaller ones (unconfirmed, since they didn't look like they could spare any leaf) peeking out from under a pile of downed trees. Why still so small? My theory is that the top growth was crushed in the general wreckage and the rootstocks had to start over with fresh shoots."
Other than having leaves of three it looks nothing like poison ivy to me. My bonafides are I have poison ivy growing on my property and clear it out frequently.
Poison ivy usually has a red stem and typically the leaves have a prominent "thumb" sticking out near the base on one side.
I had the same gut response to that photo, but (at least in the case of the first) if you look closely there appears to be a single-leaf sprout further down one of the stems, which is not poison ivy's pattern.
In the latter two photos with the smaller sprouts I could see the argument, but the leaves look to have very straight edges relative to poison ivy (and I would assume someone like this would be aware of poison ivy growing in an area of his property, especially if he has a blog about growing a plant that looks a bit like poison ivy).
This is great to come across. I had an employee bring me some years ago and I instantly became obsessed. I have two cultivars planted in my yard and got my neighbor to allow me to plant another in their yard. I think I'm 2 or 3 years out from getting fruit, but I'm still excited
In Australia, "pawpaw" is a name for the yellow papaya, a variety of Carica papaya.
If the person you replied to both 1) is Australian, and 2) did not read enough of the article to realize it was not talking about yellow papaya, then their confusion is legitimate.
It's called a pineapple because it looks like a pinecone, and pineapple is an older term for a pinecone (the "apple" being a somewhat archaic generic term for fruits).
Even more confusingly, the pawpaw referenced in that article is merely another variety of papaya, and neither are are related to the North American pawpaw described in this article.
Accent is on the first "paw." So that's a no on papaw which would suggest pronouncing it "puh-PAH," or perhaps even "PAP-paw" which would create a name clash with the backwoodsian term for "father"
Burl Ives and all the folk singers on Youtube agree:
They do have a downside though: unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome.
Here are some of the cultivars that are known to have low levels of acetogenins: Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman, Wells.
Here's a study: https://www.doc-developpement-durable.org/file/Culture/Arbre...
Also, folks in California should grow Cherimoyas and/or Atemoyas instead. They grow better in our climate and are generally better and safer.