PINK GUAVA - GOOD TO TRY!

GUAVA (Psidium guava) are one of the popular fruit grown in Malaysia. There are many guava varieties grown from the ordinary white flesh and red or pink flesh. The most popular varieties grown are GU8 (Kampuchea), GU16 (Lohan) and few others. I visited the guava farm at Sungkai, Perak to Mr Tan who grows boteh green and red guavas. Recently I found these startlingly pink guavas at my local usual grocer. In a corner many customer may noticed a small box of round, dark maroon red fruit that I haven’t seen before and went over to investigate. They turned out to be red guava from Selangor. Of course many customer had to have some in which tags as for RM8.90 a kilo. Then way back home, after hurriedly sorting out the shopping bag and storing the perishables in the fridge, I washed a guava and split it. It look like that the flesh is a lovely, unusual magenta pink and the kind of colour you get when you mix magenta with blue. I was delighted as even the blush pink variety we used to have in our backyards have long since disappeared. The taste is very good too. The fruit is firm, with a thin, crunchy skin that makes a crackling sound when you bite off a piece. Kroackk! It’s not hard like some green guavas can be. I guess the fruit is just at the right ripeness for eating. Blog "Anim Agriculture Technology" recorded an experience of testing the good taste of pink guava.

It was sweet and subtly fragrant, slightly juicy and, best of all, it has none of the tannic taste that you often find in the skin of green guavas that makes guava eating a sometimes unpleasant experience. Like regular green guava, it has numerous small, hard, sand-coloured seeds that can be eaten at least they don’t seem to pose any problems when swallowed. The seed core is white tinged with pink, custardy, soft and sweet. Even the stalk is in a dark red shade like the colour of a roselle calyx or good Burgundy. The skin is slightly rough, the purple-red veins popping through the slightly green-tinged skin. Red guava is not to be confused with the pink variety which has a pale green skin and pink flesh. A check online informs me that it is known as the Red Malaysian Guava with the same botanic name as the green: Psidium guajava. According to the Rare Fruit Database, a website on discovering new and heirloom fruit trees, it is one of the very best tasting guavas. Its bright magenta colouring makes it unique among guavas. Additionally, the foliage is a very dark red and the flowers are purple instead of white... the Red Malaysian is commonly grown from seed rather than grafted. A fast grower, the Red Malaysian will usually set fruit the very first year.

Guavas that are red tend to have more polyphenol and carotenoid content than yellow-green ones. They are good sources of Vitamin A, and flavonoids like beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein and cryptoxanthin a compounds known to have antioxidant properties. Guava is also a good source of antioxidant vitamin C, with 100g fresh fruit (especially the flesh just under the skin) providing 228mg about three times the required daily-recommended intake. Because of its high pectin content, guavas are good for making candies and jams.  Guavas come from the Mexico and the tropical central America region, including Brazil and the Caribbean. They are cultivated as a crop in subtropical and tropical Asia and Africa, the Mediterranean coast and warmer regions of North America. Green apple guava is the most common cultivar and commercially traded fruit. Red guava is relatively rare. So grab them whenever you see some. Thanks...

By,

M Anim,

Senior Agronomist,

Malacca City, Malacca,

Malaysia.

(October 2020).