Apricots
abricot (French), Aprikose (German), Marille (Austrian), albicocca (Italian), albaricoque (Spanish), albercoc (Catalan), alperces/damasco (a variety with softer flesh)(Portuguese), arbeletcheko (Basque), abrikoos (Dutch), abrikos (Danish/Swedish/Norwegian), aprikoosi (Finnish), abrikos (Russian), morela (Polish), kajszibarack (Hungarian), kajsija/marelica (Serbo-Croat), caisa (Romanian), kajsiya/zarzala (Bulgarian), prikokkia (Greek), kayisi/zerdali (wild apricot)(Turkish), mishmish (Hebrew/Arabic), zardalu (Persian), zard alu/khoomani (dried)(Hindi), xing (Chinese), anzu (Japanese), aberikos (Indonesian)
(Prunus armeniaca -- Family Rosaceae)
Apricots are members of the rose family and closely related to the plum, peach, cherry, and almond. The Greeks wrongly supposed the fruit to have originated in Armenia, and called it the Armenian plum/apple, and hence its botanical name (armeniaca). The Romans were impressed by its early ripening and called it praecocium, meaning precocious. Like peaches and plums, apricots are drupes, that is, a stone fruit that develops from self-pollinating white flowers. The fruits are roundish, yellow-orange in colour, with its length somewhat flattened and having a "seam" that runs around it almost dividing it into halves. The skins are fuzzy and velvety, flushed with pink. The flesh is firm, sweet and fragrant, but contains little juice. Apricots do not ripen after being picked. They only soften, so the flavour never improves if picked green and allowed to sit. The kernel is edible, but care must be taken not to consume more than one or two because of the prussic acid. These kernels are used mainly to flavour jams and are put into the jars whole, and discarded later.
Apricots grew wild for thousands of years in China, where it was first cultivated. While no word for the apricot exists in either Hebrew or Sanskrit, a Chinese character designating it appeared in written form just prior to 2000 BCE. Chinese silk traders introduced the fruit to Persia and Armenia. Alexander the Great is credited with taking the apricot to Southern Europe and introducing it to Greece in the 4th century BCE. Pliny mentions that apricot cultivation began among the Romans about 100 BCE and were prized by them, as well as with the Greeks who called them "golden eggs of the sun". By the 16th century CE, apricots were successfully cultivated in Northern Europe, including a wild variety mentioned growing in Siberia. King Henry VIII's gardener brought the apricot to England from Italy in 1542; but the real growing success was achieved by Lord Anson at Moor Park in Hertfordshire, producing the European favourite called Moor Park.
The Spanish brought the apricot to the New World, first planting it in Mexico, and later, in their California missions. The English attempted to grow apricots in the eastern US, but they did not fare well. Today, apricots are extensively cultivated in California, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Spain, and Russian central Asia. To some extent, they are also grown in Canada. Unfortunately, as with many fruits, those grown in North American have far less flavour than those grown in the Near East, where climate, soil conditions, and chemical-free growing produces a more flavourful fruit. In addition, since apricots do not travel and do not ripen after picking, they are sold green. Consequently the flavor is very disappointing. Since apricots ripen early, they require certain climatic conditions, mainly a fairly cold winter and moderately high temperatures in the spring and early summer. Such conditions are found in the interior of British Columbia, Canada, where the apricot just manages to ripen in their limited amount of sunshine. The main regions of cultivation include a band stretching from Turkey through Iran and the Himalayas to China and Japan; southern Europe and North Africa; South Africa; Australia; and California.
Apricots' diversity is found in their many colours, particularly in the great apricot belt from Turkey to Turkestan. These colours can be white, black, gray, and pink. Flavours are equally varied as are the sizes, which can range from that of a pea to that of a peach. In the Near East, white apricots are common and have pale skin with pinkish blushing and a translucent flesh. It is a supreme delicacy cherished for its sweetness. The range of colour does not affect the flavour, but it does affect the carotene content. The deeper the colour, the more Vitamin A it contains, as well as more Vitamins C and E and potassium.
Dried apricots are especially rich in carotenes, which are the natural yellow pigments that the body uses to make Vitamin A. According to the American Cancer Society, apricots, and other foods rich in carotenes, may lower the risk of cancers of the larynx, esphagus, and lungs. Apricots also provide potassium, iron, calcium, silicon, phosphorus, and Vitamin C. The copper and cobalt in apricots is beneficial in treating anemia, but should be used cautiously during pregnancy and in cases of diarrhea. In some animal studies, dried apricots were just as effective as liver, kidneys, or eggs in the treatment of iron-deficiency anemia. Apricots are good potassium-replacers for those on diuretics, but there is some debate among nutritionists whether the form of potassium found in apricots (potassium gluconate) is as easily absorbed by the body as such other forms as potassium citrate or potassium chloride.
Overall, dried apricots have a far greater nutritional value than the fresh ones because all the nutrients are concentrated. When apricots are cooked, the pectin is dissolved, softening the fruit. The colour does not change nor does the Vitamin A content as carotenes are impervious to heat. Dried fruit is expensive because it takes five pounds of fresh apricots to produces only one pound of dried; and, since drying removes only the water, the nutrient qualties remain relatively the same. Ounce for ounce, dried apricots, compared to the fresh, have twelve times the iron, seven times the fiber, and five times the Vitamin A. It is interesting to note that both the fresh and dried apricot are a main food staple of a tiny Hunza principality in the Himalayas, who are known for their extreme longevity, excellent health, and an almost exclusive vegetarian diet.
Despite the health aspects of the fruit, it does contain some harmful substances that, if used improperly, can undo all their healthy benefits. The bark, leaves, and inner pit all contain amygdalin, a natural chemical that can breaks down into several components, including hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid) in the stomach. Apricot oil is specially treated during processing to remove the cyanide and is marked FFPA to show that it is free from prussic acid. Apricot pits are another story. Extracts of the pits are known as Laetrile and used as a cancer treatment. These extracts go through a process that allows the human body to benefit from the substance, whereas, eating them raw renders them useless to the human body and only makes them poisonous (see under B vitamins). There have been reports of fatal poisoning from consuming too many of the raw pits. The theory behind the Laetrile treatments is that the cyanide in amygdalin is released only when it comes in contact with beta-glucuronidase, an enzyme common to tumor cells, and that it does not affect healthy cells. However, this theory has had no controlled testing done to prove its validity. In addition, apricots are often treated with sulfur dioxide before being sun dried. This bleaches the fruit, which then has to be recoloured with dye. Organically grown apricots have a superior flavour when fresh, although their appearance is less appealing when dried; but they are not subjected to any bleaching or colouring. Those that have not been treated with this preservative become darker in colour, with a carmelized, almost fig-like flavour. However, sulfur dioxide has caused some allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock in people sensitive to sulfites.
Apricots are so versatile that they can be eaten raw or cooked, dried, canned, or frozen, and served in countless ways in sweet or savory dishes. Turkey also produces an apricot leather, which is dried apricot flesh in the form of thin sheets. This is melted down for use in cooking or taken on journeys to eat as is. In South Africa, an unusual preserve called meebos is made from ripe, but firm, apricots which are brined, stoned, pressed flat, salted, and dried in the sun for several days. The resulting sheets of fruit are kept for months stored in jars between layers of sugar. Although hardly nutritious, since about the 7th century in China, apricots were preserved by salting and even smoking. The black smoked apricots of Hupei were famous. In the Middle East, apricots are used in sweetmeats or stoned and stuffed with almonds or almond paste. Because the almond and the apricot are related, the flavour of the two compliments each other. The kernels of apricots taste very similar to almonds and roasting them renders the prussic acid harmless. Used in such savoury dishes as pilafs of the Middle East, apricots add a special sweetness. The Italian "amaretti di Saronno" is a cross between a biscuit and a macaroon and owes its flavour and texture to apricot kernels and not almonds.
Some interesting apricot hybrids have appeared. The Chinese and Japanese have cultivated a flowering species (Armeniaca mume, formerly Prunus mume). It is often misdescribed as a type of plum. but the small and sour fruits are salted or pickled. Many Japanese believe that they should be eaten first thing in the morning to cleanse the system. The 'black apricots' (Armeniaca x dasycarpa) of northern India look like purplish-black plums, but have a true apricot flavour. California has developed a few plum-apricot hybrids, bearing such names as plumcot and aprium. It should be noted that the South American apricot or San Domingo apricot are not true apricots, but are fruits also known as mamy (mammee).
