Written by Frouzindeh Annelise Dyouya — Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

All about Apples

The fruit of the apple tree before being a technology company!

Beside being the American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, apple is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits originated in Central Asia. Apple has a wild ancestor called Malus sieversii, which is still available today; it grows wild in the mountains of the southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang (China).

7500 types of apples

Apples have been grown for thousands and thousands of years in Asia and Europe; nowadays we can find seven pollination groups in apples. It depends on climate:

Group A – Early flowering, 1 to 3 May in England;
Group B – 4 to 7 May;
Group C – 8 to 11 May, mid season flowering;
Group D – 12 to 15 May, mid/late season flowering;
Group E – 16 to 18 May, late flowering;
Group F – 19 to 23 May;
Group G – 24 to 28 May.

There are many Apple varieties in the world with various tastes and uses: cooking, fresh eating and the production of cider. Domestic apples are generally grown by grafting, although wild apples propagate from seed. Usually apples are eaten raw, but they are great also in many desserts: in the UK we can find the toffee apple: an apple delved into hot toffee and allowed to cool. The U.S. have similar thoughts for apples: they have candy apples, covered with sugar syrup and caramel apples, similar to candy apples but with cooled caramel instead of sugar syrup.

Beneficial effects of apples

Eating apples brings many beneficial health effects:

it reduces potential tooth decay by stimulating the production of saliva in your mouth. It also lowers the levels of bacteria;
apple juice keeps Alzheimer’s away because it fights the effects of the brain-aging;
a new study of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland found that the children of pregnant women who consumed more apples had lower rates of asthma and eczema at age five than the children of mothers who had consumed less.

Are apple seeds dangerous?

Various proteins found in the apple might lead to some forms of allergies. The seeds of apples contain, in small amount, a set of substances known as cyanogenic glycoside. Eating small amounts of apple seeds won't kill you, but in extremely large doses can become particularly dangerous. There is only one known case of deadly cyanide poisoning caused by apple seeds: the unlucky guy swallowed a whole cup of seeds. The poison may take effect in several hours, as cyanogenic glycosides must be dissolved into water before the cyanide ion is released.