NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF PAWPAW

The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit that is
native to the United States. Pawpaws are
indigenous to 26 states in the U.S., in a range
extending from northern Florida to southern
Ontario and as far west as eastern Nebraska.
They have provided delicious and nutritious
food for Native Americans, European explorers
and settlers, and wild animals. They are still
being enjoyed in modern America, chiefly in
rural areas. There are 27 varieties
currently available from more than 50
commercial nurseries in the U.S.
Most enthusiasts agree that the best way to
enjoy pawpaws is to eat them raw, outdoors,
picked from the tree when they are perfectly
ripe. But there are also numerous ways to use
them in the kitchen and extend the enjoyment
of their tropical flavor beyond the end of the
harvest season.
The unique flavor of the fruit resembles a
blend of various tropical flavors, including
banana, pineapple, and mango. The flavor and
custard-like texture make pawpaws a good
substitute for bananas in almost any recipe.
The common names, ‘poor man’s banana,’
‘American custard apple,’ and ‘Kentucky
banana’ reflect these qualities.
Pawpaw’s beautiful, maroon colored flowers
appear in the spring, and the clusters of fruit
ripen in the fall. The Kentucky harvest season
is from late August to mid-October. Ripe
pawpaw fruits are easily picked, yielding to a
gentle tug. Shaking the tree will make them
fall off. (If you try this, don’t stand under
the fruit clusters, and don’t say we didn’t
warn you.) Ripeness can also be gauged by
squeezing gently, as you would judge a peach.
The flesh should be soft, and the fruit should
have a strong, pleasant aroma. The skin color
of ripe fruit on the tree ranges from green to
yellow, and dark flecks may appear, as on
bananas. The skin of picked or fallen fruit may
darken to brown or black.
Fully ripe pawpaws last only a few days at
room temperature, but may be kept for a week
in the refrigerator. If fruit is refrigerated
before it is fully ripe, it can be kept for up to
three weeks, and can then be allowed to finish
ripening at room temperature. Ripe pawpaw
flesh, with skin and seeds removed, can be
pureed and frozen for later use. Some people
even freeze whole fruits.
Pawpaws are very nutritious fruits. They are
high in vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and
manganese. They are a good source of
potassium and several essential amino acids,
and they also contain significant amounts of
riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc.
Pawpaws contain these nutrients in amounts
that are generally about the same as or
greater than those found in bananas, apples, or
oranges.
●Nutritional Information
Composition
In comparison with banana, apple, and orange,
pawpaws have a higher protein and fat content.
Banana exceeds pawpaw in food energy and
carbohydrate content. There is little
difference among these fruits in dietary fiber
content. Pawpaw is most similar to banana in
overall composition. Apple is especially low in
protein, orange is low in fat, and both are
lower than pawpaw or banana in food energy.
●Vitamins
Pawpaw has three times as much vitamin C as
apple, twice as much as banana, and one third
as much as orange. Pawpaw has six times as
much riboflavin as apple, and twice as much as
orange. Niacin content of pawpaw is twice as
high as banana.
●Minerals
Pawpaw and banana are both high in potassium,
having about twice as much as orange and
three times as much as apple. Pawpaw has one
and a half times as much calcium as orange,
and about ten times as much as banana or
apple. Pawpaw has two to seven times as much
phosphorus, four to twenty times as much
magnesium, twenty to seventy times as much
iron, five to twenty times as much zinc, five to
twelve times as much copper, and sixteen to
one hundred times as much manganese, as do
banana, apple, or orange. Sodium content has not yet been
determined.
●Amino acids
The protein in pawpaw contains all of the
essential amino acids. Pawpaw exceeds apple in
all of the essential amino acids, and it exceeds
or equals banana and orange in most of them.
See Table 2 and Table 3 for details.
Fats
The profile of fatty acids in pawpaw is
preferable to that in banana. Pawpaw has 32%
saturated, 40% monounsaturated, and 28%
polyunsaturated fatty acids. Banana has 52%
saturated, 15% monounsaturated, and 34%
polyunsaturated fatty acids.