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Loquat sidewalk art
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http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/loquat.html
Food Uses
The skin of the loquat is easily removed. Peeled and seeded fruits are eaten fresh, sometimes combined with sliced banana, orange sections and grated coconut. They are delicious simply stewed with a little sugar added. The fruits are also used in gelatin desserts or as pie-filling, or are chopped and cooked as a sauce. Loquats canned in sirup are exported from Taiwan. Some people prepare spiced loquats (with cloves, cinnamon, lemon and vinegar) in glass jars. The fruit is also made into jam and, when slightly underripe, has enough pectin to make jelly. The jelly was formerly manufactured commercially in California on a small scale.
| Food Value Per 100 g of Edible Portion* | |
| Calories | 168 |
| Protein | 1.4 g |
| Fat | 0.7 g |
| Carbohydrates | 43.3 g |
| Calcium | 70 mg |
| Phosphorus | 126 mg |
| Iron | 1.4 mg |
| Potassium | 1,216 mg |
| Vitamin A | 2,340 I.U. |
| Ascorbic Acid | 3 mg |
*Analyses reported by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.
The fruit contains laevulose, sucrose and malic acid and lesser amounts of citric, tartaric and succinic acid. The pulp contains the carotenoids
B-carotene (33%);
y-carotene (6%); cryptoxanthin (22%), lutein, violaxanthin, neoxanthin (3-4% each). The peel is 5 times richer than the pulp in carotenoids which are similar to those in apricots.
Toxicity
A 5-year-old girl in Florida ate 4 unripe loquats, fell asleep and was difficult to awaken and seemed dazed. After about 2 hours, she was back to normal. There have been instances of poisoning in poultry from ingestion of loquat seeds. The seeds contain amygdalin (which is converted into HCN); also the lipids, sterol,
b-sitosterol, triglyceride, sterolester, diglyceride and compound lipids; and fatty acids, mainly linoleic, palmitic, linolenic and oleic. There is amygdalin also in the fruit peel. The leaves possess a mixture of triterpenes, also tannin, vitamin B and ascorbic acid; in addition, there are traces of arsenic. Young leaves contain saponin. Some individuals suffer headache when too close to a loquat tree in bloom, The emanation from the flowers is sweet and penetrating.
Other Uses
Wood: The wood is pink, hard, close-grained, medium-heavy. It has been used instead of pear wood in making rulers and other drawing instruments.
Animal feed: The young branches have been lopped for fodder.
Perfume: In the 1950's, the flowers attracted the interest of the perfume industry in France and Spain and some experimental work was done in extraction of the essential oil from the flowers or leaves. The product was appealing but the yield was very small.
Medicinal Uses: The fruit is said to act as a sedative and is eaten to halt vomiting and thirst.
The flowers are regarded as having expectorant properties. An infusion of the leaves, or the dried, powdered leaves, may be taken to relieve diarrhea and depression and to counteract intoxication from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Leaf poultices are applied on swellings.
