Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) fruit: Nutritional value, handling and processing techniques, and health benefits

Abstract

With its exquisite dietary properties, aroma, and unique taste, the avocado has been termed as "God's greatest gift to humanity." The name "Avocado" (Persea americana) has emerged from the Aztec word "ahuacatl." It is also called butter fruit or alligator pear or vegetable butter or midshipman's butter or butter pear (Kumar Gupta et al., 2018). The origin of avocado is Southern Mexico and Central America. In 2020, the market for avocado worldwide is valued at 11880 million USD. It is expected to reach 15,000 million USD by the end of 2026. Mexico is the major producer of avocados in the world and harvested around 2.2 million tons in the year 2018 (Shahbandeh, 2021). Avocado is a healthy subtropical climacteric fruit. Due to buttery consistency, rich flavor, and smoothness, avocado is consumed as a fresh fruit throughout the globe in bulk quantities. In the domain, there are about 500 varieties of evergreen fruit avocados which can be found in various sizes, shapes, and colors. The size of the fruit varies from small to large, that is, mass of the avocado differs (75-1000 g). The shape of avocado differs from round to pear-shaped, with a long slender neck. The shape of the butter fruit can be of globular, rhomboidal, oblate, spherical, ovate, and elliptical. The color of avocado shifts from green to dark purple with advanced maturity or ripening (Satriana et al., 2019). The color of butter fruit may be black, dark purple, light purple, reddish yellow, yellow, yellowish green, dark green, and pale green.

‘Superfoods’: Reliability of the Information for Consumers Available on the Web

“…Four sites named the avocado as a good source of PUFA; however, this is not confirmed by scientific information [56]. Plant variety, environmental conditions, maturity stage, soil composition and fertilization are important factors that influence the composition of avocado [57].…”

New insight of chemical constituents in Persea americana fruit against obesity via integrated pharmacology

“…Commonly, Persea americana fruit (PAF) is a plentiful source of monounsaturated fatty acids and a good reservoir of linoleic acid 14 . PAF is a valuable oil‐rich fruit with an anti‐oxidative effect and enhancement of the immune system through metabolic pathways 15 . PAF oil consists of 84% unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and 16% saturated fatty acids (SFAs) 16 .…”

“…14 PAF is a valuable oil-rich fruit with an anti-oxidative effect and enhancement of the immune system through metabolic pathways. 15 PAF oil consists of 84% unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and 16% saturated fatty acids (SFAs). 16 However, UFAs are more unstable than SFAs and more susceptible to rancidity.…”

Development of Biodegradable Films Produced from Residues of Nixtamalization of Popcorn

“…is a highly perishable tropical fruit of culinary relevance in the world, which completes its postharvest ripening process from five to seven days at 25 • C [18]. It has high nutritional value as it is rich in essential oil and bioactive compounds; it also allows protection from oxidative damage and improves the immune system [19]. Its consumption has increased in the last ten years by 15% per year [20].…”

“…Therefore, postharvest technologies to maintain and prolong the useful life of this fruit must be found. Hereupon some authors have explored various techniques for this purpose, such as microwave drying, freeze-drying, high-pressure processing [19], and packaging materials evaluation [21]. Conventional plastics (polyethylene (PE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polystyrene (PS), and polypropylene (PP)) are commercialy used and studied [22], and although these plastics increase the shelf life of avocado, its degradablity is higher.…”