scashaggy

scashaggy

My carambola tree is flowering. Lots of bees doing their jobs.

scashaggy

A few more from around the yard.

scashaggy

A couple of blooms opened on my dragon fruit tonight.

Dangermouse01

Very first flower ever from any of my Jaboticabas.
White Jaboticaba.


DM

merce3

soursop... sadly i don't think it is going to make it. same thing happened last year, but this year i got 8-9 flowers.

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Richard

Sorry about the lack of production. On the plus side, ingestion of soursop has been repeatedly tied to the onset of atypical parkinson's disease.

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merce3

that happens with chronic consumption over a long period of time and where seeds and/or leaves are being consumed as well. i doubt i need to be concerned with the amount of soursop that i would get off this one plant. however, if it gave me 20 fruit, i would probably eat every last one so it's probably good that i am limited by the local climate.

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Richard

I disagree with that criteria. The fruit flesh contains significant quantities of Annonacin.

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merce3

i did some more research and you are right about the levels of annonacin. i still think that i am safe with the small amounts of fruit that i'll get.

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amantedelenguaje

Gosh! The soursop info worries me. I am cultivating asimina triloba pawpaw, a close relative to soursop. It has high levels of annonacin too. My trees are all set to bloom for the first time next summer. I guess I'd better think twice before gorging myself on the fruit.

bananimal

Anonas are wonderful. Gorge and quit for a while. Graviola treatments are used to treat cancer.

I went to school with a guy who bragged about drinking a fifth of rye every day. He's no longer around!!

Everything in moderation, grasshopper!

Richard

A past neighbor of mine is an asst. director of research at the LA Jolla Neurological institute. In the Annona family, we figured that it was safe to eat 7 sugar apples per year, OR 5 cherimoyas per year, OR 2 soursops per year. Beyond that is a gamble. At 4 times those dosages for 3 or more years it is fairly certain you will have detectable symptoms - at least in a thorough physical.

But the Annonas paw-paw and atemoya do not carry these risks. The drug concentrate in the flesh of these fruits is 2% to 5% of cherimoya. You could eat around 200 a year and still be below most risk factors.

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robguz24

Fascinating. I have an atemoya tree, which I love, and a soursop which I freeze and eat if I can't sell it. I guess I'll keep eating the atemoya!

The idea that soursop is used in cancer treatment is not correct. There are compounds that could have an anti-cancer effect in very limited circumstances in a lab setting. But that is a far cry from being an actual treatment. The vast majority of treatments that seem promising in the lab fail to even get to Phase II clinical trials. A woman I know started drinking massive amounts of soursop juice when she got diagnosed with small cell lung cancer last year. She's dead of course. It's sad when people forgo proven treatments in order to try something they saw on a fraudulent Facebook meme.

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sunfish

Where's the attitude police and the pot head ? and the garden club

sunfish

and the story teller

Richard

It is true that soursop is grown commercially in the tropics by pharmaceutical companies. This accounts for the majority of cultivated acreage. The "harvest" is by cutting the plants back at two meter height and distilling Annonacin from the plant material, including the fruit. As a cancer treatment, Annonacin is a TOPICAL drug. For male prostate cancer it is microencapsulated and injected into the cell mass. Standard dosage is 35mg with a lifetime dosage of 70mg.

Contrast this with "Graviola" sold in health food stores. It is sold as a cancer preventative. A single dosage is 600mg. Annonacin is immune to the brain blood barrier. A person taking weekly dosages of Graviola has an equal likelihood of perishing from atypical parkinson's and cancer.

Further, consider the popular drink in Central and South America "guanabana". It contains about 50mg Annonacin. In terms of life expectancy, it is on the same par with cigarettes.

Why mess with this stuff? There are plenty of other great tasting fruits!!

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robguz24

Richard, do you know anything about rollinia in terms of the comparison of safe eating levels? It's also considered an annona right? It's one of my favorites.

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Richard

Rollinia is a generic name that refers to approximately 65 different species of fruit, some of which are Annona and others are not.

Further, Rollinia is also a genus of plants in the Annona family (Annonaceae).

Rob, I know you are a careful person so you understand my reluctance here.

If we could narrow your plant down to a cultivar of a species or hybrid of a genus then I might be able to help.

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amantedelenguaje

Yippee! You are a fountain of knowledge.

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