Custard apple, Grade : A

Custard apple is a delicious, pleasantly fragrant fruit in the Annona family. The fruit is popular for its sweet and slightly tangy, creamy textured flesh. It is also known as bullock's heart in the English speaking countries.

Botanically, custard is a "multiple-fruit" wherein the fruit is developed from the merger of several individual flowers (ovaries) into a large fruit mass (infructescence).

The custard apple plant is a large shrub belonging to the Annonaceae family. It is native to the tropical rainforests of Central America and naturalized in many parts of the world, spreading along the tropical stretches, from South America to Africa and Asia.

Custard apple is a globular, round to heart-shaped fruit with polygonal indentations on its surface. Many cultivars exist, and depending upon the variety there can be green, brown, yellow, maroon fruits.

Custard apple features tough, outer skin. Inside, individual arils consist of cream-white sheath enveloping single, glossy, deep brown color seeds. The flesh just underneath its surface has a granular texture. Skin and seeds are inedible and discarded. Its flavor described as a reminiscence of mangosteen, sweet and pleasantly tangy, melts inside the mouth.

Custard apple is smaller in size than cherimoya (A. cherimola), Pond apple (A. glabra) and soursop (A. muricata) but a bit larger than sugar apple (A. squamosa). Oftentimes, Sugar apple is termed interchangeably to custard apple.

Health benefits of custard apple

• Custard apple has relatively more calories than cherimoya. 100 g of the fruit carries 101 calories against 56 calories of cherimoya. The major portion of the calorie comes from simple carbohydrates. It, however, contain no saturated fats or cholesterol.
• As in other Annona family fruits, custards also contain several polyphenolic antioxidants. Among them, the most prominent are Annonaceous acetogenins. Acetogenin compounds such as asimicinand annonacin are potent cytotoxins. These compounds have been found to have anti-cancer, anti-malarial and de-worming properties.
• Custards compose of more vitamin-C(19.2 mg/100 g) than that of in cherimoya. Sugar-apples, however, carry the highest (36.3 mg/100 g) amount of this vitamin among all the Annona fruits. Vitamin-C is a powerful natural antioxidant. Consumption of fruits rich in vitamin-C helps the human body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body.
• Custard apple is a modest source of B-complex vitamins, especially vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine, 17% per 100 g)). Pyridoxine helps keep up GABA neurochemical in the brain. High GABA levels in the blood help calm down nervous irritability, tension, and headache ailments.
• Custards contain minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, iron (9% of RDI per 100 g) and manganese. Additionally, they compose more potassium (382 mg per 100 g) than cherimoya (287 mg per 100 g).