Summary
Alexander the Great is credited with bringing back the apple tree to Macedonia. The apple tree was brought to North America with the colonists in the 1600s. The apple can help with a number of ailments, including bone protection, asthma, Alzheimer’s, lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and liver cancer. It is also known to promote digestive health as well as lower cholesterol. One apple contains about 81 calories, 13 percent of your daily vitamin C and 15 percent of your daily fiber. Apple is available in whole, grated or peeled form.
Description
Medicinal Parts
The medicinal parts are the fresh false fruit, the dried fruit peels, and the inflorescences with their leaves and solid peduncles.
Flower and Fruit
The flowers are umbelled racemes with only a few blossoms. The petals are obovate, up to 2.5 cm long, stemmed, white, pink, or pink on the outside and white on the inside. The carpels are fused with the false fruit.
Leaves, Stem, and Root
The plant is a 6- to 10-m high tree or shrub. Boughs and branches are initially villous-haired, later becoming glabrous. The leaves are alternate, ovate, usually shortly acuminate, and finely crenate-serrate.
Habitat
The plant is cultivated in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and occasionally grows wild.
Production
Medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations of apples come in liquid and dried pectin forms. The source material is the apple residue with 10% to 20% pectin in the dried mass. The residue is extracted at pH 1.5 to 3 and 60º to 100º C.
Actions & Pharmacology
Compounds: In the Fruit Pulp
Fruit acids: the chief acid is malic acid (0.2 to 1.5%); in unripe apples quinic acid; including as well citric acid, succinic acid, lactic acid
Caffeic acid derivatives: including 5-caffeoyl quinic acid
Aromatic substances: in particular 2-trans-hexenal, 3-cis-hexenal, 2-trans-hexenol, 3-cis-hexenol, beta-damascenone, ethyl butyrate, methyl butyric acid hexylester; in some strains, 1-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)benzole
Pectins
Tannins
Vitamins: in particular ascorbic acid (3 to 30 mg/100 gm)
Compounds: In the Seeds
Cyanogenic glycoside: amygdalin (0.5 to 1.5%, corresponding to 30 to 90 mg HCN/100 gm)
Fatty oil
Effects
Pectin is a swelling agent. Apple pectins have a mild binding effect.
Indications & Usage
Unproven Uses
Finely ground fruit or preparations that contain liquid or dry pectin are used for milder forms of dyspepsia, diarrhea, and digestive complaints, especially in children.
Precautions & Adverse Reactions
No health hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.
Dosage
Mode of Administration
The fruit is available for oral use in the grated or chopped form. The peel can be used in teas. Medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations of apples come in liquid and dried pectin forms.
