by Nadia Promi

Created on: May 15, 2008   Last Updated: July 13, 2008

A light fluorescing in the dark? Wonder what it is? Surprisingly, it may easily be a kiwifruit. The answer is simple: in 2001 New Scientist published an article by a Portuguese physicist who discovered that a kiwifruit, when ripe, can fluoresce brightly as if it is zapped with a laser.

The egg-shaped kiwifruit has a furry brownish green skin and firm, translucent green flesh with edible purple-black seeds at the centre. Having a slightly acid taste, it can be eaten raw or cooked, and its juice is sometimes used as a meat tenderizer. A native plant to China and Taiwan, kiwifruit has been grown commercially in New Zealand for more than a hundred years. At the beginning of the 20th century its seed was introduced to the US, New Zealand, England and France but only the New Zealand introduction led to the development of commercial varieties. As reported by P. Berry in Acta Horticulturae in 1996, the kiwifruit history in New Zealand started in 1903 when a wise woman, Miss Fraser, a college principal at the time, visited her missionary sister in China. On her return home in early 1904, she brought back with her a small quantity of seeds which are now known as Actinidia deliciosa.

Kiwi fruit has been assigned the leading role on the list of 28 most nutritious fruits created by two researchers from Rutgers University, based on the daily value' per 100 grams of nine nutritional factors: protein, total vitamin A, thiamin (vitamin B), riboflavin (vitamin B), niacin, folic acid, vitamin C, calcium and iron.Kiwi fruit is not only highly nutritious with its amounts of vitamin C, other vitamins and polyphenols, but it is also considered to be beneficial in some diseases, for example in atherosclerotic disease development. As it was reported in Nutraceuticals International in 2004, a research conducted at the University of Oslo in Norway has found that eating two to three kiwi fruit per day can work to thin blood, reduce clotting and lower fat in the blood that can cause blockage, without negatively affecting cholesterol levels. Another study, by the Rowett Research Institute in the UK, also suggested that eating kiwi fruit daily can provide protection against DNA damage that can trigger cancer.

To add to the list, the Health & Medicine Week reported in 2004 that a new antifungal protein from the gold kiwi fruit was isolated, being different from the already known thaumatin-like antifungal protein from green kiwi fruit. And recently, a study published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology in 2007, presented the results of a research conducted at the University of Hong Kong, which proved that the increasing dietary fiber of kiwi fruit intake is effective in relieving chronic constipation.
No doubt, kiwifruit has made great impact on the world fruit market in the 20 century. The international kiwifruit industry now includes more than 120.000 hectares of planted orchards and more than one million tons of fresh fruit produced annually. Since 1987 international symposiums on kiwifruit are being organized in different countries.

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