Super Soperific Sapote

A volunteer brought in a green fruit he found on the grounds today and wanted to know what it was; turns out it's citrus family member white sapote, Casimiroa edulis. I did a little research on the fruit and found that it's considered soporific, in other words, a sedative; surprisingly one of the ingredients responsible for this effect is a compound that mimics histamine, the chemical messenger that tells our body to swell up in response to bee stings and pollen.


California Rare Fruit Grower's white sapote page :

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/whitesapote.html

Purdue Horticulture Department's white sapote page:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/white_sapote.html