Kiwi(s)

Kiwifruit – Actinidia deliciosa.

 

No matter what the name says, the Kiwifruit is a berry that grows from a type of vine known as Actinidia deliciosa native to the south of China. An alternative name for the kiwi is Chinese gooseberry. However when the berry started to be exported in the 1950s it was first renamed melonette and then later it got its current name by people in New Zeeland who named it after the Kiwi bird, a tiny flightless bird and the national symbol of New Zeeland.

 

Before it became discovered by the rest of the world and exported under the name of kiwifruit, it was also known in China as Macaque peach, Macaque pear, Sunny peach, Wood berry and others. The Actinidia deliciosa, known as Yáng táo in Chinese is also the ”National fruit” of the Peoples Republic of China, which is also the place where the cultivation of the vine started and then spread on to India and Japan. It did not spread to New Zeeland until the early 20th century by the current principal of Wanganui Girls College known as Mary Isabel Fraser, who came back with the berry after a mission schools in Yichang, China.

 

Kiwifruit is not only good, its also nutritious, with a vitamin C value of 1.5 times the US recommended daily intake and a potassium content by weight only being slightly less than that of a banana. It also has contents of vitamin E and vitamin A and the skin is a good source of Vitamin P type antioxidants, it even contains some Omega-3 oil. A Norwegian study shows that kiwifruit can significantly increase the thinness of the blood and therefore greatly reduces the risk for blood clots, the skin of the fruit is also very high in dietary fiber, which is good for the digestion of food.