Graviola is the Portuguese term for the soursop (annona muricata), an evergreen tree found mostly in the rainforest of South America. It is also known by the Spanish term, guanabana.
Description
Graviola has large, glossy and dark-green leaves with fruits referred to as paw paw. The fruits are heart-shaped, and they turn from green to yellow when ripe.
Peru
For centuries, inhabitants of the Peruvian Andes have used graviola leaves for making tea and ingested the fruit's crushed seeds as disease killing agents. The Amazon people in Peru have long regarded parts of the plant as possessing sedative powers.
Brazil
The Brazilian Amazons have long used graviola leaf tea for treatment of liver problems. Their women ate graviola fruits or drunk the juice to increase lactation.
The Caribbean
The native people of Jamaica, Haiti and the West Indies used the paw paw and its juice for treating diarrhea and fevers.
Today
Graviola has been clinically studied since the 1940s, with its long-held attributes confirmed. It is now grown as a commercial crop in certain parts of the world. This is done not only in South America, but in Southeast Asia as well.
Tags: have long, South America, used graviola
