The Vietnamese apple, also called the green apple, has smooth and green skin. It has popularly been grown in Vietnam with two main types: sour and sugar apples.
Apples contain various vitamins. Each 100 grams of apple will have about 400-600 vitamin C, meaning 7 to 10 times higher than the amount of vitamin C found in oranges and tangerines.
The amount of vitamin C in Vietnamese apples is about 100 times higher than that of red apples.
Content menu:
- Characteristics of the Vietnamese apple
- What types of Vietnamese apples are there?
- The crop of Vietnamese green apples
- Price and where to buy Vietnamese apples
- The effect of Vietnamese apples
- People who should limit eating apples
- Conclusion
1. Characteristics of the Vietnamese apple
The Vietnamese apple is one of the tropical fruit trees belonging to the Apple family (Rhamnaceae), native to Asia, mainly India, and sometimes you can find it in Africa as well.
The apples of Vietnam have many names, depending on each region, including sour apple, green sugar apple, Ta Apple, Yunnan hawthorn, Indian apple, or Dien apple; however, the most popular is the green apple.
The apple plants belong to a woody and fast-growing tree, up to 12 meters tall, with a lifespan of up to 25 years.
Although growing on the same tree, the Vietnamese apple fruits often have uneven ripening at different times. They range from light green when being unripe, white flesh, crispy, and a little sour taste. When being ripe, they become sweet with bright yellow skin when ripe, and their flesh is pale yellow, soft, spongy, and fragrant.
An apple contains a hard, oval, brown seed inside. The shape and size of the apple depend on the different varieties: round or oval in shape and nearly big-toe in size.
Apples are rich in nutrients and provide a lot of vitamin C, especially the amount of vitamin P, also known as flavonoids.
2. What types of Vietnamese apples are there?
Vietnamese apples have different shapes and sizes due to cultivars. You can come across several varieties:
- Gia Loc apples: oval, orange-yellow in color, crunchy, and slightly sour.
- Long Thai apples: have long fruit, slightly pointed top, slightly large fruit size, crunchy, sweet, and light aroma.
- Round Thai apples: have round fruits and a crunchy and slightly sour taste.
- H12 sweet apples: have a round shape. The ripe fruits are light yellow, crunchy, and sweet with a pear-like aroma.
- Sweet Thien Phien apples: round, slightly flattened fruit, dark green or light green when young, acrid taste, but when ripe, it is white and yellow, the peel is slightly cracked into small streaks, crunchy, with sweet and sour taste.
3. The crop of Vietnamese green apples
Apples in Vietnam are grown in most provinces of the country. There are two core crops:
- The first crop: flowering in May, blooming flowers, and fruiting in June; harvesting in August.
- The second crop: blooming in July and August. Almost all apple flowers bloom and bear fruits in August for harvest in December.
4. Price and where to buy Vietnamese apples
Small green apples are sold a lot in local markets, and sometimes in Vietnamese supermarkets.
Each fruit can weigh about 25-30g on average. The apple trees from 2 to 5 years old can give 120-180 kg of fruit.
Green apples in Vietnam are calculated by the kilogram, not by fruit because a fruit is small. The average price per kilogram is 15,000 VND to 35,000 VND, depending on the sweet or sour taste and the small or large size of the fruits.
5. The effect of Vietnamese apples
Although Vietnamese apples are small, they have a lot of positive effects on the body. The following are their notable effects, which we have tried to collect.
5.1. Be beautiful for the skin and stimulate hair growth:
Thanks to a large amount of vitamin C, Vietnamese green apples are positive on skin health with an anti-oxidant and increased resistance.
Apple juice, proven by many researchers, can reduce wrinkles, swelling, redness, and dryness of sunburned skin, helping the skin to recover quickly and become more beautiful.
In addition, mixing apple powder with water and applying it to the head skin every day will improve dandruff and limit other head skin diseases.
Also, apple powder can stimulate hair growth faster, and its color is always shiny black.
5.2. Anti-depression
Green apples from Vietnam can be used as a tonic to support brain health. They help to fight against both depression and neurasthenia and even symptoms of night sweats in children and adults.
In particular, many people also use apple seeds to grill until black. Then, cook these 2-3 grams/day to drink to promote the above effect besides eating fresh apples.
5.3. Improve anemia
Eating these apples helps improve anemia and also increases the body’s resistance.
In addition, the apples also support the treatment of chronic arthritis and gout by limiting the formation of uric acid.
5.4. Good for joints
Thanks to the significant amount of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus in the small green apples, they help make your bones and teeth stronger.
5.5. Prevent constipation
Vietnamese apple also contains chlorogenic acid, which has the ability to remove oxalic acid from the body and normalize the functioning of the liver, stomach, intestines, and digestive glands. Therefore, eating green apples also increases appetite and prevents constipation.
5.6. Improve immune system
Apples can contain 18-24 essential amino acids. It also contains many vitamins A, C, and carotene, potassium, which help strengthen the body’s immune system.
Therefore, eating more apples can help you avoid colds and coughs. Thanks to the mucilage of this fruit, it is also considered a Vietnamese herb of medicine to treat sore throats.
5.7. Relieve headaches
Drinking apple juice and gently rubbing apple juice on the head and temple area has the effect of reducing stress and headaches.
6. People who should limit eating apples
Pregnant women: Although green apples have beneficial effects, pregnant women should not eat too much because these apples can cause bloating and indigestion. When eating them, you need to chew carefully to reduce the working of your stomach.
When buying green apples, pregnant women as well as others pay attention to choosing apples of clear origin to avoid apples sprayed with pesticides that will not be beneficial to themselves and the baby.
Young children: Because apples are small, children are easy to put in their mouths, causing choking. So when children are eating apples, parents pay close attention to this issue.
People with acne: Vietnamese apples are small and sour. Although they do not have a strong sweet taste, they are still listed as hot-tempered character fruits. Because Vietnamese apples will slow down the digestive system, causing pimples, and are not beneficial if eaten a lot.
Conclusion:
In general, Vietnamese apples are alright and good to taste. But, the green apples as well as other tropical fruits in Vietnam have both sides, good and bad. When eating, just enjoy enough amount of them, not too much.
Typically, you need to wash the apples carefully before eating to avoid unwanted chemicals on the skin. It is better to peel the skin before tasting them.
The feeling and taste of Vietnamese apples are unique, both sour and sweet with a little fragrance, different from other fruits.
Now is your turn.
Will you taste the green apples when visiting Vietnam?
