Caribbean region, Asia and Central and South America, the use of mature-green
fruits to make a drink is geographically restricted to the French West Indies
(Martinique and Guadeloupe) and Grenada.
The Golden apple (Spondias cytherea Sonnerat or Spondias dulcis Forst) belongs
to the Anacardiaceae family which includes several important tropical fruit trees such
mango (Mangifera indica L.) and cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) (Purseglove,
1974). Native to Polynesia, it was introduced into Jamaica in 1782 and nowadays is
mainly cultivated in the Caribbean region, Asia, Central America, South America and, to
Information and Technology for Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Production
FRUTIC 05, 12 – 16 September 2005, Montpellier France
Post Harvest Technology
84
a lesser extent, in Africa. Golden apple is a medium-sized (15-25 m) tree with olive green
hairless leaves (2-6 cm length) (Fournet, 2002). The fruit is an ellipsoid to ovoid drupe (4-
12 cm length; 3-8 cm diameter) and can weigh up to 450 g (Persad, 1991; Daulmérie,
1994; Fournet, 2002). Structure of an immature green Golden apple is presented in
Figure 1 and its physico-chemical characteristics are given in Table 1. When the fruit
ripens, its skin and flesh turn Golden-yellow, emitting aroma components characterized in
previous papers
Unripe Golden apple fruits are eaten in curries
or green salads or made into pickles (3tbspoons brown sugar
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 ginger
1/4 cinnamon
2 0z butter
pinch salt
30 mins
