Kiwifruit, a botany, chemical and sensory approach a review

Abstract

The kiwi is a fruit with a great agricultural, botanical, and economic interest. Originally from China, this species is currently widespread in practically all the world, due to the high nutritional value of the fruits, excellent organoleptic qualities besides therapeutic benefits in the health. The most common kiwifruit species grown commercially is Actinidia deliciosa even though many varieties of this fruit are produced by other cultivars or by another kind of plants, such as Actinidia chinensis and the Actinidia kolomikta or the Actinidia argute. Although there are many varieties in this species, the A. deliciosa Hayward cultivar is the most popular variety marketed commercially. Kiwifruits contain aromatic compounds able to attract consumers due to their palatability. The esters, ethyl butanoate and methyl benzoate and the aldehyde E-2-hexenal, were shown to increase "characteristic kiwifruit aroma and flavor". All these characteristics are appreciated by the kiwi-consumers. Several preservation techniques have now been used to augment kiwi shelf life, including cold storage, chemical dipping, modified atmosphere packaging and edible coatings, making it possible for the consumers to enjoin the fruit all the year.

A review on various medicinal applications of kiwi fruit

“…Due to the juicy flavour of kiwi, the word deliciosa was derived from the Latin word "deliciosus," which means "delicious." [6]. Kiwi fruit is oval in shape, greenish brown in colour, it has little sweet and bitter taste.…”

“…The scented, dioecious or sexual flowers are borne singly or in groups of three among the leaf axils. Each sex has a centre tuft of numerous stamens, and the petals are originally white before becoming buff-yellow [6]. Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) and wind are regarded as essential pollinators in kiwi fruit.…”

Comparative Analysis of Volatile Compounds in Flowers of Different Actinidia Species

“…deliciosa (amounting to 31% and 37%, respectively, of the total actinidia production), but other species are gaining in importance. In particular, A. arguta, also known as hardy kiwifruit, kiwiberry or minikiwi, and A. kolomikta, known as super-hardy kiwi, amounting already to 17% and 8% of the total output, respectively [3]. Actinidia arguta, a smooth-skinned, grape-sized fruit, contains a high amount of vitamin C, phenolic compounds and minerals, representing a high antioxidant activity, and hence a wide range of health benefits [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…The fruit is smaller than kiwiberry and matures early in the season [2,4]. Generally, A. arguta and A. kolomikta fruits both present higher levels of antioxidants, vitamin C and concentration of minerals than A. chinensis [3]. The fruit of Actinidia polygama, which has a nice orange colour and a bitter taste, was used mainly in ancient Chinese and Korean folk medicine [9].…”

Comparative analysis of agrochemical, allelopathic and microbiological characteristics of the soil environment for Actinidia arguta (Siebold et Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq. cultivated in Ukraine and two provinces of China

“…Actinidia arguta is mainly cultivated as a fruit and honey plant because it has beneficial nutritional qualities due to the high content of vitamins and mineral elements, as well as dietary properties (Park, 2017;Latocha, 2017;Pinto & Vilela, 2018;Almeida et al, 2018). Wide range of bioactive compounds with antiproliferative (Zuo et al, 2012;Latocha, 2017), antioxidant (Zuo et al, 2012Mikami-Konishide et al, 2013;Latocha, 2017;Almeida et al, 2018), antimicrobial (Almeida et al, 2018), hepatoprotective (Jho et al, 2011), antiallergic (Latocha, 2017), antiinflammatory and antinociceptive (Teng et al, 2013), antiamnesic (На et al, 2015) and some other effects (Nishimura et al, 2016;Latocha, 2017) makes hardy kiwifruit the high-value medicinal plant.…”