Amazingly Healthy Fruit Pitaya Or Dragon Fruit

This is about the Pitaya – also known as Dragon fruit – the native of Central America, but it’s exported from and grow in the countries of Southeast Asia, like Vietnam and Thailand. Among the various species of cactus, its juicy stem serves the delicious fruit with the moisturized climate of its growing area.

Pitaya or dragon fruit has some different names in various regions in the world, including Red Pitahaya, Strawberry Pear, Night blooming Cereus, Cinderella plant, Belle of the Night etc.

Nutritional Facts of Pitaya/Dragonfruit

Here are the typical nutritional facts of dragon fruit per 100 grams serving:

Water 80-90 g, Vitamin C 4–25 mg, Calcium 6–10 mg, Ash 0.4-0.7 g, Carbohydrates 9-14 g, Calories: 35-50, Fat 0.1-0.6 g, Carotene, Vitamin A, traces; Fiber 0.3-0.9 g, Phosphorus 16 – 36 mg, Iron 0.3-0.7 mg, Vitamin B3 0.2-0.45 mg,VitaminB1 traces, Vitamin B2 traces and Protein 0.15-0.5 g.

Health Benefits of Dragon Fruit

It also is named a “crazy fruit”, because the appearance of the fruit is improbable. It contains low calories along with numerous nutrients, including B vitamins, vitamin C, antioxidants, fiber, protein, and many more. Here are some Amazingly Healthy Fruit Pitaya or Dragon Fruit:

Rich in B Vitamins

B vitamins are water soluble that is essential for the human body daily basis because it could not be stored in our body. Moreover, they play a big role to produce energy and provide important nutrients in our diet. We suffer from many kinds of disease due to lack of B vitamins like gingivitis, ulcer, and many more.

Magnesium in Dragonfruit

Magnesium helps to boost the energy. It also needs to regulate the levels of calcium, potassium, and sodium. Moreover, it can make relaxed your nerves, muscles and make you free of anxiety, which leads you to sleep better and recovery of muscle or muscle pain.

Antioxidants in Dragon Fruit

Antioxidants in dragon fruit can protect the cells to fight against the free radicals that are responsible for cancer, heart diseases, and other associated health issues. They are also needed to keep your skin firm and tight.

Vitamin C in Dragon Fruit

Vitamin C in Dragon fruit act to protect and boost your immune system, prenatal health problems, eye disease, even skin wrinkling and cardiovascular disease. It contains carotene and linked to many kinds of anti-carcinogenic qualities like tumors.

High Fiber in Dragon Fruit

Highly fibered diets can reduce the dangers of heart disease, normalize bowel movements and maintain bowel health, control the levels of blood sugar, lower the levels of cholesterol and helps to get the proper weight. As the dragon fruit contains the significant amount of fiber content, it can keep you free of these diseases along with constipation as well as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Iron in Dragon Fruit

Iron is extremely important for our body which carries oxygen to the entire body. It’s vital for better functionality of our brain as well as muscles. Dragon fruit contains a good amount of iron that needs to our body.

These are some about Amazingly Healthy Fruit Pitaya or Dragon Fruit. Moreover, they have many more health benefits and there is evidence for Dragon fruit that it’s safe to consume. There is no risk to health to eat it.

Works Cited

1. Chang, C. S., & Chen, P. H. (2009). Antioxidant properties of the supercritical extracts from red pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) peel. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 10(4), 575-579.
2. Chen, J. H., Chen, P. H., & Liu, A. L. (2009). Pharmacokinetics and excretion of betalains following consumption of red pitaya juice in rabbits. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 57(6), 2274-2279.
3. Esquivel, P., Stintzing, F. C., & Carle, R. (2007). Evaluation of the polyphenol content and antioxidant properties of pitaya (Hylocereus sp.) fruits. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55(8), 2864-2869.
4. Kohyama, K., Suzuki, S., Matsuda, Y., Sato, S., & Nakatsuka, A. (2019). Characterization of anthocyanins in Hylocereus polyrhizus fruits by HPLC-PDA/MS/MS and antioxidant activity analysis. Food Science & Nutrition, 7(5), 1583-1593.
5. Lin, S. W., Liou, R. F., Chen, C. L., & Shih, M. C. (2011). Determination of betacyanin profiles in Hylocereus polyrhizus and their fruit products by high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Journal of Food and Drug Analysis, 19(1), 9-16.
6. Mabberley, D. J. (2008). Mabberley's plant-book: A portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses. Cambridge University Press.
7. Nguyen, H. L., & Hoang, T. K. N. (2020). Extraction of antioxidant compounds from dragon fruit peel using different solvents and optimization of extraction conditions. Food Science & Nutrition, 8(6), 3142-3150.
8. Rodriguez-Saona, L. E., Wrolstad, R. E., & Shallenberger, R. S. (2001). Minor volatile compounds in red raspberry fruit (Rubus idaeus L.): Evaluation of sampling methods. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 49(6), 3178-3187.
9. Schulze, W., & Canto, A. (2021). Dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.): An overview of cultivation, phytochemical composition, and health benefits. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 69(1), 3-14.
10. Wu, S., Tian, L., Duan, X., Yin, X., & Yang, J. (2006). Composition of sugars, organic acids, and total phenolics in 25 wild or cultivated berry species. Journal of Food Science, 71(5), C615-C619.