Jackfruit

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is another kind of tropical fruit that native to South and Southeast Asia. Outer fruit skin, pointy-pointy-shaped, green, with white flesh when young, then turns into yellow when ripe.

This tree is widely cultivated in tropical regions of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Jackfruit is also found in East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania and Mauritius) as well as throughout Brazil and Caribbean nations such as Jamaica. In a tropical area like Southeast Asia region, the tree can be found from low land until 1,300 above sea level.  This fruit can be found anytime, because jackfruit is not a seasonal fruit.

Jackfruit is very sweet and tasty, when the jackfruit opened, you will find the bright yellow pods (when ripe) which can be eaten raw or cooked. When unripe its flesh is green, and it can be made into various delicious vegetable dishes.

Scientific Classification :

• Kingdom: Plantae
• Division: Magnoliophyta
• Class: Magnoliopsida
• Order: Rosales
• Family: Moraceae
• Genus: Artocarpus
• Species: A. heterophyllus

Young fruit
The young jackfruit used for preparing various vegetable dishes, in Indonesia young jackfruit cooked with coconut milk became a very popular dishes named Gudeg. In India and South asia region, the young jackfruit used to replace meat in various kind of popular dishes especially curries. In Thailand especially on their northern part, young jackfruit treated as salad named kanun.

Jackfruit

Ripe fruit
The ripe of jackfruit can enjoyed directly without any additional cooking process. But it also can be used as raw material for various cakes, fresh drinks, ice cream also crispy chip.

The Wood
A jackfruit trees begin to bear fruit at the age of 5-10 years, and will survive until 20-30 years. As a chronic type of tree, the  wood is quite hard and used for various purposes. The most popular is using as raw material of furnitures.

Food Value
According to USDA National Nutrient data base here is nutritional content every 100 gram of jackfruits. Energy : 95 Kcal, Carbohydrates : 23.5 g, Protein : 1.72 g, Total Fat : 0.64 g, Cholesterol : 0 mg, Dietary Fiber : 1.5 g,  Folates : 24 µg, Niacin : 0.920 mg, Pyridoxine : 0.329 mg, Riboflavin : 0.055 mg, Thiamin : 0.105 mg, Vitamin A : 110 IU, Vitamin C : 13.7 mg, Vitamin E : 0.34 mg, Sodium : 3 mg, Potassium : 303 mg, Calcium : 34 mg, Iron : 0.60 mg, Magnesium : 37 mg, Manganese : 0.197 mg, Phosphorus : 36 mg, Phosphorus : 21 mg, Selenium : 0.6 mg, Zinc : 0.42 mg.