Grapefruit Explained

The grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit.[1] The flesh of the fruit is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark red.

Grapefruit is a citrus hybrid that originated in Barbados in the 18th century. It is an accidental cross between the sweet orange (C. × sinensis) and the pomelo (C. maxima), both of which were introduced from Asia in the 17th century.[2] It has also been called the 'forbidden fruit'.[1] In the past it was called the pomelo,[3] but that term is now mostly used as the common name for Citrus maxima.[4]

Grapefruit–drug interactions are common, as the juice contains furanocoumarins that interfere with the metabolism of many drugs. This can prolong and intensify the effects of those drugs, leading to multiple side-effects such as abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding inside the stomach, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and dizziness.

Description

The evergreen grapefruit trees usually grow to around 4.5– tall, although they may reach 13.7m (44.9feet).[1] The leaves are up to 150NaN0 long, thin, glossy, and dark green. They produce 50NaN0 white flowers with four or five petals. The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and generally an oblate spheroid in shape; it ranges in diameter from 10to. Its flesh is segmented and acidic, varying in color depending on the cultivars, which include white, pink, and red pulps of varying sweetness (generally, the redder varieties are the sweetest).[1] The 1929 U.S. 'Ruby Red'[1] (of the 'Redblush' variety) was the first grapefruit patent.[5]

Varieties

The varieties of Texas and Florida grapefruit include: 'Duncan', 'Flame', 'Henderson', 'Hudson', 'Marsh', 'Oro Blanco', 'Pink', 'Pummelo HB', 'Ray', 'Rio Star', 'Ruby Red', 'Star Ruby', 'Thompson', 'Triumph', 'Walters', 'White Marsh'.[6]

The 1929 'Ruby Red' (or 'Redblush') patent was associated with real commercial success, which came after the discovery of a red grapefruit growing on a pink variety.[1] The Texas Legislature designated this variety the official "State Fruit of Texas" in 1993.[7]

Using radiation to trigger mutations, new varieties were developed to retain the red tones that typically faded to pink.[8] The 'Rio Red' variety is a 1984 registered Texas grapefruit with registered trademarks Rio Star and Ruby-Sweet, also sometimes promoted as Reddest and Texas Choice. The 'Rio Red' is a mutation-bred variety that was developed by treatment of bud sticks with thermal neutrons. Its improved attributes of mutant variety are fruit and juice color, deeper red, and wide adaptation.[9]

The 'Star Ruby' is the darkest of the red varieties.[1] Developed from an irradiated 'Hudson' grapefruit ('Hudson' being a limb sport of 'Foster', itself a limb sport of the 'Walters'),[10] it has found limited commercial success because it is more difficult to grow than other varieties.[11] [12]

As food

Nutrition

Raw white grapefruit is 90% water, 8% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). In a reference amount of 100abbr=offNaNabbr=off, raw grapefruit provides 138kJ of food energy and is a rich source of vitamin C (37% of the Daily Value), with no other micronutrients in significant amounts (table).

Culinary

Like other citrus fruits, grapefruits are sour because of their citric acid content; grapefruit juice contains about half the citric acid content of lemon juice, and nearly 50% more than orange juice.[13] In Costa Rica, especially in Atenas, grapefruit are often cooked with to balance their sourness, rendering them as sweets; or they are stuffed with dulce de leche as a dessert.[14] In Haiti, grapefruit is used primarily for its juice (jus de Chadèque), but also is used to make jam (confiture de Chadèque).[15] [16]

Grapefruit varieties are differentiated by the flesh color of fruit they produce. Common varieties are yellow and pink pulp colors. Flavors range from highly acidic and somewhat sour to sweet and tart, resulting from composition of sugars (mainly sucrose), organic acids (mainly citric acid), and monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes providing aromas.[17] Grapefruit mercaptan, a sulfur-containing terpene, is one of the aroma compounds influencing taste and odor of grapefruit, compared with other citrus fruits.[18] With its sharp taste, grapefruit is used in some recipes for fish.[19] [20]

Drug interactions

See main article: Grapefruit–drug interactions.

Grapefruit and grapefruit juice interact with numerous drugs, resulting in numerous adverse effects.[21] Effects commonly include abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding inside the stomach, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and dizziness.[21]

One interaction occurs from grapefruit furanocoumarins, such as bergamottin and 6',7'-dihydroxybergamottin, which occur in both flesh and peel. Furanocoumarins inhibit the CYP3A4 enzyme (among others from the P450 enzyme family responsible for metabolizing 90% of drugs). The action of the CYP3A4 enzyme itself is to metabolize many medications.[21] If a drug's breakdown for removal is lessened, then the level of that drug in the blood may become and remain high, leading to adverse effects.[21] On the other hand, some drugs must be metabolized to become active, and inhibiting CYP3A4 may lead to reduced drug effects.[21]

Another effect is that grapefruit compounds may inhibit the absorption of drugs in the intestine. If a drug is not absorbed, then not enough of it is in the blood to have a therapeutic effect. Each affected drug has either a specific increase of effect or decrease.[22]

One whole grapefruit or a glass of 200sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 of grapefruit juice may cause drug overdose toxicity.[23] Typically, drugs that are incompatible with grapefruit are marked as such on the container or package insert.[23] [21]

Production

Production – 2022
CountryMillions of tonnes
5.2
1.1
0.5
0.4
0.3
World 9.8
Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations[24]

In 2022, world production of grapefruits (combined with pomelos) was 9.8 million tonnes, led by China with 53% of the world total with Vietnam as a secondary producer (table).

Pests and diseases

Grapefruits are hosts for fruit flies (family Tephritidae) such as A. suspensa, which lay their eggs in overripe or spoiled grapefruits, sometimes causing serious damage in plantations in the Americas.[25] In sub-Saharan Africa, the Citrus swallowtail, Papilio demodocus, is a minor pest of Citrus plantations.[26] Grapefruits are subject to several diseases of Citrus trees, including citrus tristeza virus, citrus canker (caused by a bacterium, Xanthomonas), and the vector-transmitted citrus greening disease, where the vector is a psyllid bug, and the pathogen is a bacterium, Liberibacter.[27]

History

Grapefruit originated as a natural hybrid.[28] One ancestor of the grapefruit was the Jamaican sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), itself an ancient hybrid of Asian origin; the other was the Indonesian pomelo (C. maxima).[1] The pomelo was the female ancestor; the sweet orange, itself a hybrid, was the male.[29] Both C. sinensis and C. maxima were present in the West Indies by 1692. One story of the fruit's origin is that a 17th-century trader named 'Captain Shaddock'[1] [30] brought pomelo seeds to Jamaica and bred the first fruit, which were then called shaddocks.[31] The grapefruit then probably originated as a naturally occurring hybrid between the two plants some time after they had been introduced there.[1] [2]

A hybrid fruit, called forbidden fruit, was first documented in 1750 (along with 14 other citrus fruits including the guiney orange) by a Welshman, the Rev. Griffith Hughes, in his The Natural History of Barbados.[1] [32] [33] However, Hughes's forbidden fruit may have been a plant distinct from grapefruit although still closely related to it.[34]

In 1814, the British naturalist and plantation owner John Lunan published the term grapefruit to describe a similar Jamaican citrus plant.[31] Lunan reported that the name was due to its similarity in taste to the grape (Vitis vinifera).[35] An alternative explanation is that this name may allude to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to bunches of grapes.[36]

In 1830, the Jamaican version of the plant was given the botanical name Citrus paradisi by the Scottish physician and botanist James Macfadyen. Macfadyen identified two varieties – one called forbidden fruit, the other Barbadoes Grape Fruit. Macfadyen distinguished between the two plants by fruit shape with the Barbados grapefruit being piriform (pear shaped) while the forbidden fruit was "maliformis".[37] Macfadyen's and Hughes's descriptions differ, so it is not clear that the two reports are describing the same plant. It has been suggested that Hughes's golden orange may actually have been a grapefruit, while his forbidden fruit was a different variety that may since have been lost.[30] A citrus called forbidden fruit or shaddette has been discovered in Saint Lucia; it may be the plant described by Hughes and Macfadyen.[34]

The name grape-fruit was used more and more during the 19th century to refer to pomelos, to the consternation of some.[38] It was brought to Florida by the French businessman Count Odet Philippe in 1823, in what is now known as Safety Harbor.[1] Further crosses have produced the tangelo (1905), the Minneola tangelo (1931), and the oroblanco (1984). Its true origins were not determined until the 1940s, at which point its official name was altered to Citrus × paradisi, the × identifying it as a hybrid.[39] [40] An early pioneer in the American citrus industry was Kimball C. Atwood, a wealthy entrepreneur who founded the Atwood Grapefruit Company in the late 19th century. The Atwood Grove became the largest grapefruit grove in the world, with a yearly output of 80,000 boxes of fruit.[41] There, pink grapefruit was discovered in 1906.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Morton, Julia Frances . Grapefruit, Citrus paradisi, In: Fruits of Warm Climates . 152–158 . . 1987 . 978-0-9610184-1-2 . 16947184 . 2003-03-28 . 2000-10-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20001006072046/http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/grapefruit.html . live .
  2. Book: Carrington . Sean . Fraser . Henry C. . A~Z of Barbados Heritage . 2003 . Macmillan Caribbean . 978-0-333-92068-8 . 90–91 . Grapefruit . One of many citrus species grown in Barbados. This fruit is believed to have originated in Barbados as a natural cross between sweet orange (C. sinesis) and pomelo (C. grandis), both of which originated in Asia and were introduced by Europeans in the 17th century. The grapefruit first appeared as an illustration entitled 'The Forbidden Fruit Tree' in The Natural History of Barbados (1750) by Rev. Griffith Hughes. This accords with the scientific name, which literally is 'citrus of paradise'. The fruit seems to have been fairly commonly available around that time, since George Washington in his Barbados Journal (1750-1751) mentions 'the Forbidden Fruit' as one of the local fruit available at a dinner party he attended. The plant was later described in the 1837 Flora of Jamaica as the Barbados Grapefruit. The historical arguments and experimental work on leaf enzymes and oils from possible parents all support a Barbadian origin for the fruit..
  3. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1973) defines "pomelo" simply as "The grapefruit".
  4. Li . Xiaomeng . Xie, R. . Lu, Z. . Zhou, Z. . The Origin of Cultivated Citrus as Inferred from Internal Transcribed Spacer and Chloroplast DNA Sequence and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Fingerprints . Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science . July 2010 . 135 . 4 . 341 . 10.21273/JASHS.135.4.341 . free.
  5. http://www.texasweet.com/About-Texas-Citrus/Texas-Grapefruit-History Texas grapefruit history
  6. Web site: Go Florida Grapefruit . Go Florida Grapefruit . 2011-12-17 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110910120645/http://www.gofloridagrapefruit.com/florida-grown/ . 2011-09-10 .
  7. Book: Hatch . Rosie . Texas Almanac 2022-2023 . 2022 . Texas State Historical Association . Austin, Texas . 978-1-62511066-4 . 21.
  8. News: Broad . William J. . Useful Mutants, Bred With Radiation . . 28 August 2007 . 22 February 2017 . 1 February 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170201131515/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/science/28crop.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin . live .
  9. Web site: MVD . mvgs.iaea.org . 2017-03-30 . 2014-03-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140319233559/http://mvgs.iaea.org/Search.aspx?ID=282 . live.
  10. Ahloowalia . B.S. . Maluszynski . M. . Nichterlein . K. . 2004 . Global impact of mutation-derived varieties . Euphytica . 135 . 2 . 187–204 . 10.1023/B:EUPH.0000014914.85465.4f . 34494057 .
  11. Web site: Home fruit Production-Grapefruit . Sauls . Julian W. . 1998 . 2013-07-22 . 2013-07-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130730035626/http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/grapefruit.htm . live.
  12. Web site: Star Ruby grapefruit . Citrus Variety Collection . 2013-07-22 . 2013-06-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130619074412/http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/starruby.html . live.
  13. Penniston . Kristina L. . Nakada . Stephen Y. . Holmes . Ross P. . Assimos . Dean G. . Quantitative Assessment of Citric Acid in Lemon Juice, Lime Juice, and Commercially-Available Fruit Juice Products . Journal of Endourology . 22 . 3 . 2008 . 10.1089/end.2007.0304 . free . 567–570. 2637791 .
  14. Book: Ben Box . Sarah Cameron, Sebastian Ballard . 1994 Mexico & Central America Handbook . 4 . 1993 . Trade and Travel Publications . 978-0900751462 . 682 . Costa Rica - The Meseta Central.
  15. Web site: Standardisation d'une formulation de confiture de chadèque et évaluation des paramètres physico-chimiques, microbiologiques et sensoriels . fr . Standardization of a chadek jam formulation and evaluation of physicochemical, microbiological and sensory parameters . Monrose, Gregory Salomon . Université d'Etat d'Haiti (UEH / FAMV) - Ingenieur Agronome 2009 . Memoire Online . 5 June 2017 . 7 June 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170607105620/http://www.memoireonline.com/03/09/2031/Standardisation-dune-formulation-de-confiture-de-chadeque-et-evaluation-des-parametres-physico-chim.html . live.
  16. Book: Bidault, Blandine . Gattegno, Isabelle . 46 . 1984 . Le point sur la transformation des fruits tropicaux . fr . Update on the processing of tropical fruits . Groupe de recherche et d'echanges technologiques (GRET) . Paris.
  17. Zheng . Huiwen . Zhang . Qiuyun . Quan . Junping . Zheng . Qiao . Xi . Wanpeng . Determination of sugars, organic acids, aroma components, and carotenoids in grapefruit pulps . Food Chemistry . 205 . 2016 . 10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.03.007 . 112–121 . 27006221 . 41172984 .
  18. Characterization of the Most Odor-Active Volatiles in Fresh, Hand-Squeezed Juice of Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macfayden) . Buettner . A. . Schieberle . P. . J. Agric. Food Chem. . 1999 . 47 . 5189–5193 . 10.1021/jf990071l . 10606593 . 12.
  19. Web site: Franey . Pierre . Fillet of Fish with Grapefruit . . 28 October 2024.
  20. Web site: Oliver . Jamie . Jamie Oliver . Sea bass, fennel & grapefruit ceviche . Jamie Oliver . 28 October 2024.
  21. Web site: Drug interactions with grapefruit juice . Drugs.com . 24 July 2023 . 18 May 2022.
  22. Web site: 2022-09-29 . How the "Don't take this medication with grapefruit juice" warning originated Science-Based Medicine . 2022-11-04 . sciencebasedmedicine.org . 2022-11-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221104121805/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/how-the-dont-take-this-medication-with-grapefruit-juice-warning-originated/ . live .
  23. Bailey . D. G. . Dresser . G. . Arnold . J. M. O. . Grapefruit-medication interactions: Forbidden fruit or avoidable consequences? . Canadian Medical Association Journal . 185 . 4 . 2012 . 309–316 . 10.1503/cmaj.120951 . 23184849 . 3589309.
  24. Web site: Grapefruit production in 2022, Crops/Regions/World list/Production Quantity (pick lists) . 2024 . UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) . 6 April 2024.
  25. van Whervin . L. Walter . March 1974 . Some Fruitflies (Tephritidae) in Jamaica . Pest Articles & News Summaries . 20 . 1 . 11–19 . 10.1080/096708774094123313.
  26. Web site: Papilio demodocus (citrus swallowtail) . CABI . 28 October 2024 . 10.1079/cabicompendium.38757.
  27. Louzada . Eliezer S. . Ramadugu . Chandrika . Grapefruit: history, use, and breeding . Horttechnology . 31 . 3 . 2021 . 243–258 .
  28. Web site: Xiaomeng Li . Rangjin Xie . Zhenhua Lu . Zhiqin Zhou . Genetic origin of cultivated citrus determined: Researchers find evidence of origins of orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit, other citrus species . Science Daily . 21 September 2017 . 21 September 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170921192729/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110118101600.htm . live.
  29. Wu . Guohong Albert . Terol . Javier . Ibanez . Victoria . López-García . Antonio . Pérez-Román . Estela . Borredá . Carles . Domingo . Concha . Tadeo . Francisco R. . Carbonell-Caballero . Jose . Alonso . Roberto . Curk . Franck . Du . Dongliang . Ollitrault . Patrick . Roose . Mikeal L. Roose . Dopazo . Joaquin . Gmitter Jr . Frederick G. . Rokhsar . Daniel . Talon . Manuel . 5 . Genomics of the origin and evolution of Citrus . . 2018 . 554 . 7692 . 311–316 . 10.1038/nature25447 . 29414943 . 2018Natur.554..311W . free . 20.500.11939/5741 . free. and Supplement
  30. Kumamoto . J. . Scora . R. W. . Lawton . H. W. . Clerx . W. A. . 1987-01-01 . Mystery of the forbidden fruit: Historical epilogue on the origin of the grapefruit, Citrus paradisi (Rutaceae) . Economic Botany . 41 . 1 . 97–107 . 10.1007/BF02859356 . 1987EcBot..41...97K . 42178548.
  31. https://web.archive.org/web/20080502135258/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAW/is_87/ai_n25336559 Grapefruit: a fruit with a bit of a complex
  32. Web site: Grapefruit . World Wide Words . 2017-03-30 . 2021-03-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210309203019/http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gra3.htm . live.
  33. Web site: Welchman Hall Gully, Barbados . 2010 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20100816070727/http://www.welchmanhallgullybarbados.com/index.php . 16 August 2010 . 11 July 2010 . The Development of the Gully - The Gully was once part of a plantation owned by a Welshman called General William Asygell Williams over 200 years ago. Hence the name "Welchman Hall" gully. It was this man who first developed the gully with exotic trees and an orchard. Interestingly, the grapefruit is originally from Barbados and is rumoured to have started in Welchman Hall Gully. . dead .
  34. Bowman . Kim D. . Gmitter . Frederick Jr. . April 1990 . Forbidden Fruit (Citrus sp., Rutaceae) Rediscovered in Saint Lucia . Economic Botany . 44 . 2 . 165–173 . 10.1007/BF02860484 . 4255226 . 1990EcBot..44..165B . 33098910 . 2022-04-11 . 2022-04-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220411235306/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255226 . live .
  35. Book: Lunan, John . John Lunan . Hortus Jamaicensis . 1814 . St. Iago de la Vega Gazette . Jamaica . 171–173 . 24 December 2020 . 27 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200727134410/http://idtools.org/id/citrus/citrusid/factsheet.php?name=Grapefruits+(Non-pigmented) . live .
  36. Web site: How did the grapefruit get its name? . . Everyday Mysteries . January 26, 2021 . November 27, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201127005023/https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/agriculture/item/how-did-grapefruit-get-its-name-it-doesnt-look-like-a-grape/ . live .
  37. Macfadyen . James . James Macfadyen . 1830 . Some remarks on the species of genus Citrus which are cultivated in Jamaica. . Botanical Miscellanea . 1 . 295–304.
  38. Book: Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the twenty-first Session of the Legislature of the State of California . Legislature of the State of California . V . Report of the Secretary–the pomelo . Sacramento, California . 1895 . 65 . https://books.google.com/books?id=7SNIAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA65 . The pomelo is now marketed under the name 'grape-fruit', which is a misnomer. This is confusing and misleading. The name 'grape-fruit' was given to this fruit in Florida, as it hangs on trees in clusters resembling the grape, but has no relation to it whatever. Growers and shippers should drop the name 'grape-fruit' and apply to it the name pomelo, which is popular, and botanically correct. . California . 2020-10-07 . 2023-07-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230713194320/https://books.google.com/books?id=7SNIAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA65 . live .
  39. Web site: Texas Citrus: Puzzling Beginnings . 2007-03-02 . 2007-01-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070125112342/http://www.texasweet.com/texascitrus/grapefruit.html . dead .
  40. University of Florida: IFAS Extension; The Grapefruit. Web site: Fact Sheet . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070628190748/http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/CH/CH06300.pdf . 2007-06-28 .
  41. Web site: Manatee County a big part of citrus history . Herald-Tribune . 2004-08-16 . 2011-12-17 . 2012-10-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121012003951/http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20040816/NEWS/408160323?tc=ar . live .

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