Fruits Used as Food
Fruits are, technically speaking, the seed-bearing parts of flowering plants, with some dictionaries officially recognizing that humans colloquially consider fruits to be those ripened seed-bearing products of flowering plants that have sweet tastes. Some things you wouldn't normally consider fruit, like tomatoes and cucumbers, are.
Many fruits are commercially used for human consumption. All kinds of fruits, including apples, peaches, watermelons, coconut, mangoes, and many other fruits can be used and eaten fresh, within prepared meals, or processed into another food product. People have mastered different kinds of conservation of fruits, so they can make some jams and marmalades or dry the fruits and eat them in the winter, when there are no fresh fruits available, or didn't used to be.
Manufactured food can also contain significant amounts of fruits. This way, you can have some yogurt with dried or fresh fruits and also cakes and muffins. Cookies and breads and many more products are also known for containing different fruits.
Many people make drinks out of fruits. If you use a juicer at your home, you can make a fruit juice from virtually any fruit or fruit mix you want. Pick your favorite fruits, whether they are apples, peaches or grapes, and make some juice. Another option to make a drink out of fruits is alcoholic fermentation. This way you could make some brandy or wine. Also, you can make some vinegar using apples or grapes.
The term "botanical fruits" may be used to refer to fruits considered such in biology, and that includes many vegetables. Foods we typically consider vegetables because of their savory taste that are actually fruits include eggplant, okra, pumpkin, tomato, bell pepper, zucchini, cucumber and green bean.
Some fruits are used to make oil, especially olives, which by cold pressing give us highly appreciated extra virgin olive oil.
Berries can also be useful to make some spices. From some dried berries, people can get black (ant also other kinds of) pepper, paprika, allspice etc. Vanilla is also one of the spices that is derived from the fruits.
Other Things Fruits are Used For
Fruits can also be used for purposes other than eating.
Some fruits can be used to extract medications from. From opium poppy fruits scientists have been able to extract codeine and morphine. It also contains the abaine, important for the synthesis of another medication – oxycodone.
If you ever eaten walnuts, sumac, mulberry and cherry, you know that they can stain your clothes. Because of that, these fruits have been used for centuries as natural dyes.
Coconut is a multipurpose fruit. It can be used as a fruit, but also as the source of natural fibers for mattresses, insulation or floor tiles. The shell of the coconut, as well as the dried gourds, are also useful for bird houses, as the instrument, for cups, or souvenirs.
They can be used in floral arrangements or decorations. Milkweed, lotus, unicorn plant, wheat and annual honesty fruits are used for decoration purposes. Sometimes, fruits can be used as ornamental shrubs, especially if they are particularly colorful. That’s how we use cotoneaster, holly, pyracantha, skimmia, beauty berry and viburnum. Pumpkins can be used to make some lanterns for Halloween.
Some fruits provide wax that can be made into candles (bayberries), and some are useful to repel cockroaches (osage orange). Fruits can also be used as ingredients for skin care products, such as moisturizers, exfoliators, or shampoos.
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