A number of people are getting confused with Kumquats and oranges because of their similarities. And even for some people, Kumquat is a unique name in the category of fruit. For them, it is a must to know that Kumquat is an edible fruit and resembles orange but smaller in size. The fruit is eaten along with the peel. The name kumquat comes from Chinese ‘Cantonese’ means ‘golden tangerine’. The fruit is native to South Asia and originally were being cultivated in China. It is considered a sacred plant in China and given a gift on the occasion of lunar New Year. Now, the juicy fruit is grown all over the world. It can be eaten just like grapes and olives along with the peel. It is full of health and medicinal benefits.
Top Health benefits of kumquat
Kumquat is playing a very important role in the overall wellness of the body. It reduces the chances of diabetes, smooth digestion, and enhances the immunity of the body. It is also good for skin, hair, and health.
- Helps in glowing of skin: The presence of antioxidants and other compounds helps to minimize the impact of free radicals thus prevents the negative effects of wrinkles, pimples, acne, and blackheads.
- Encourage weight loss: It tends to the feeling of a full stomach because of high fiber content, high water content, and low calories. Thus, an ideal means for those who want to lose weight.
- Strength your hair: The adequate amount of vitamin C and antioxidants helps in the quality, growth, and strengthening of hair thus reduces the probability of hair fall and hair loss.
- Prevent diabetes: It is good for digestion as well as the digestive system because of the presence of enough fiber. These dietary fibers also balance insulin and glucose in the body thus prevents sugar and diabetes.
- Protects the body from degenerative diseases: It has an abundant amount of vitamins A, C, and E, which act against free radicals thus save the body from many ailments.
- Good for overall health: Kumquats are full of phytonutrients. It has an adequate amount of minerals, vitamins, dietary fiber, and pigments. It is eaten along with peel that brings many health benefits because of its containing essential oils, antioxidants, tannins, pectin, non-starch polysaccharides, and hemicellulose.
- Full of antioxidants: The fruit is packed with bio-chemical compounds such as ascarotenes, tannins, lutein, zeaxanthin, essential oils like limonene, pinene, a-muurolene, a-bergamotene, etc.
- Helps in wound healing: Due to plenty of vitamin C (100 g of it provides 73% of recommended daily allowances) helps to protect the body from wound and injuries related problems. It is also helpful in collagen synthesis.
- Good for teeth health: It is having calcium, which is the most important component for teeth and bones formation.
- Helps in metabolism: The fruit is having an adequate amount of B-complex such as thiamin, niacin, pyridoxine, folates, and pantothenic acid, all helps in the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein, and fats.
Nutritional facts
In 100 g of the fruit contains the following nutritional value: calories (274), protein (3.8g), Fat (0.4g), carbohydrate (72.1g), calcium (266mg), phosphorous (97mg), iron (1.7mg), sodium (30mg), potassium (995mg), vitamin A (2, 530IU), riboflavin (0.40mg), thiamine (0.35mg) and ascorbic acid (151mg).
Uses of Kumquats
- It is used to make jellies, sauce, fruit-concentrates, jams, and jellies.
- Its slices are used in salads to make it relish.
- It is used in the making marmalades, candied, and preserves because of its thin peel.
- It is used in making ice cream, pie, cakes, and juice.
- It is used to make the dishes decorative.
- Pickles are also made of it.
- It is added to meat dishes due to its acidic features.
- Due to its sweet flavor, it is used for candies, desserts, cocktails, and garnishes.
- Liquor, extracts, and products used as traditional medicines are prepared from it.
Types of kumquats
The different important varieties of kumquats are given below:
- Round kumquat: It is the most widely used and cultivated species, given as a gift in New Year, and having the characteristics of cold tolerance.
- Oval kumquat: It is also known as Nagami kumquat. The entire fruit is eaten including its skin because of its sweet flavor.
- Jiangsu kumquat: It is an edible fruit and used in the making marmalade and jellies. It can be recognized by its round leaves.
- Centennial variegated kumquat: It is distinguished because of its variegated color in the form of green and yellow stripes. Its skin is comparatively thin.
Kumquat hybrids
Due to its popularity in South Asia and the rest of the world, the fruit is hybridized. The various hybrids form of the edible, as well as the ornamental plants, is given below:
- Calamondin mandarin orange x kumquat
- Yuzuquat yuzu x kumquat
- Orangequat: Satsuma mandarin x kumquat
- Sunquat: lemon x kumquat
- Citrangequat:citrange x kumquat
- Limequat: key lime x kumquat
- Procimequat: limequat x kumquat
Selection tips: One should choose those kumquats which are bright orange in color.
Storage Tips: At room temperature, it can be kept or used up to three days while refrigerated kumquats can be used up to two weeks.
How to eat them: Eat the ripe orange color fruit as a whole including its peel.
Growing season: The growing season of the fruit is from November to March.
Very nice information.