Tropical and subtropical fruits (2+1)

Nutritional Significance

The importance of fruits in providing valuable nutrients, particularly vitamins and minerals in human diet is well known, and according to dietary standards an individual must consume 85g fruits/day. After writing off 20 to 25 percent as post harvest losses and inedible portion of the fruits, the availability is estimated at 46 g/day, which is one of the lowest in the world.


• To bridge this gap of demand and supply the production will have to be raised through increasing orchard efficiency and by bringing more area under fruit crops.
• People inhibiting in dry land areas are known to suffer from a number of nutritional disorders owing to lower intake of protective foods like fruits & vegetables. Growth of fruit industry in such areas shall definitely increase their intake and helps in improving health hazards.
• Nutritionally arid/arid fruit crops are highly significant and comparable with major crops. Following are the mineral composition of different minor/arid fruit crops.

Nutritional value of arid fruits/100g edible portion.


Sl. No.	Fruit crops	Calories	P (%)	Ca (%)	Fe (%)	Vit A (IU)	Thiamine (mg)	Vit.C (mg)
1	Aonla/Amla	59	0.02	0.05	1.2	-	30	600
2	Bael	23	0.01	0.09	0.6	240	-	-
3	Ber	129	0.05	0.03	0.3	186	12	15
4	Bullocks heart	91	0.01	0.01	0.6	Trace	-	-
5	Custard apple	105	0.04	0.02	1.0	Trace	-	-
6	Dates	283	0.08	0.07	10.6	600	90	Trace
7	Fig	75	0.03	0.06	1.2	270	-	-
8	Jamun	83	0.01	0.02	1.0	-	-	-
9	Karonda	364	0.06	0.16	39.1	-	-	200-550
10	Pomegranate	65	0.07	0.01	0.3	-	-	16
11	Rose apple	43	0.03	0.01	0.5	-	-	-
12	Wood apple	97	0.11	0.13	0.6	-	-	-