With the attention of super foods in the press these days, it can be easy to overlook the health benefits of apples and pears. Not only do they make a deli. Benefits Of Apples' title='Benefits Of Apples' />A diet rich in antioxidants may have similar effects, so apples, since they are particularly rich in quercetin, are a good bet, according to 2. Many of us forget that sometimes, the simplest answers are the best. Read on for 15 health benefits of apples. Greenmedinfo. com Natural Health Resource The worlds most widely referenced, open access, natural medicine database, with 30,000 study abstracts and growing daily. Health Benefits of Apples 1. Great Source of CancerFighting Antioxidants. Apples are a highantioxidant food and a very significant source of flavonoids in people. Learn the risks and health benefits of apples, and how they can help fend off disease and promote weight loss. Apple Wikipedia. The apple tree Malus pumila, commonly and erroneously called Malus domestica is a deciduous tree in the rose family best known for its sweet, pomaceous fruit, the apple. It is cultivated worldwide as a fruit tree, and is the most widely grown species in the genus. Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek and European Christian traditions. Apple trees are large if grown from seed. Generally apple cultivars are propagated by grafting onto rootstocks, which control the size of the resulting tree. There are more than 7,5. Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and uses, including cooking, eating raw and cider production. Trees and fruit are prone to a number of fungal, bacterial and pest problems, which can be controlled by a number of organic and non organic means. In 2. 01. 0, the fruits genome was sequenced as part of research on disease control and selective breeding in apple production. Worldwide production of apples in 2. China accounting for 4. Botanical information. Blossoms, fruits, and leaves of the apple tree Malus pumilaThe apple is a deciduous tree, generally standing 1. When cultivated, the size, shape and branch density are determined by rootstock selection and trimming method. The leaves are alternately arranged dark green colored simple ovals with serrated margins and slightly downy undersides. Blossoms are produced in spring simultaneously with the budding of the leaves, and are produced on spurs and some long shoots. The 3 to 4 cm 1. The central flower of the inflorescence is called the king bloom it opens first, and can develop a larger fruit. The fruit matures in late summer or autumn, and cultivars exist with a wide range of sizes. Commercial growers aim to produce an apple that is 7. Some consumers, especially those in Japan, prefer a larger apple, while apples below 5. The skin of ripe apples is generally red, yellow, green, pink, or russetted although many bi or tri colored cultivars may be found. The skin may also be wholly or partly russeted i. The skin is covered in a protective layer of epicuticular wax. The exocarp flesh is generally pale yellowish white,7 though pink or yellow exocarps also occur. Wild ancestors. The original wild ancestor of Malus pumila was Malus sieversii, found growing wild in the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang, China. Cultivation of the species, most likely beginning on the forested flanks of the Tian Shan mountains, progressed over a long period of time and permitted secondary introgression of genes from other species into the open pollinated seeds. Significant exchange with Malus sylvestris, the crabapple, resulted in current populations of apples being more related to crabapples than to the more morphologically similar progenitor Malus sieversii. In strains without recent admixture the contribution of the latter predominates. Genome. In 2. 01. Italian led consortium announced they had sequenced the complete genome of the apple in collaboration with horticultural genomicists at Washington State University,1. Golden Delicious. It had about 5. 7,0. This new understanding of the apple genome will help scientists in identifying genes and gene variants that contribute to resistance to disease and drought, and other desirable characteristics. Understanding the genes behind these characteristics will allow scientists to perform more knowledgeable selective breeding. The genome sequence also provided proof that Malus sieversii was the wild ancestor of the domestic applean issue that had been long debated in the scientific community. History. Wild Malus sieversii apple in Kazakhstan. The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern present day Turkey. The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated,1. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in 3. BCE 5 those he brought back to Macedonia might have been the progenitors of dwarfing root stocks. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia. Apples were introduced to North America by colonists in the 1. North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1. The only apples native to North America are crab apples, which were once called common apples. Apple cultivars brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes, as well as being cultivated on colonial farms. An 1. 84. 5 United States apples nursery catalogue sold 3. North American cultivars by the early 1. In the 2. 0th century, irrigation projects in Eastern Washington began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading product. Until the 2. Improved transportation of fresh apples by train and road replaced the necessity for storage. In the 2. 1st century, long term storage again came into popularity, as controlled atmosphere facilities were used to keep apples fresh year round. Controlled atmosphere facilities use high humidity, low oxygen, and controlled carbon dioxide levels to maintain fruit freshness. Society and culture. Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, the goddess Iunn is portrayed in the Prose Edda written in the 1. Snorri Sturluson as providing apples to the gods that give them eternal youthfulness. English scholar H. R. Ellis Davidson links apples to religious practices in Germanic paganism, from which Norse paganism developed. She points out that buckets of apples were found in the Oseberg ship burial site in Norway, and that fruit and nuts Iunn having been described as being transformed into a nut in Skldskaparml have been found in the early graves of the Germanic peoples in England and elsewhere on the continent of Europe, which may have had a symbolic meaning, and that nuts are still a recognized symbol of fertility in southwest England. Davidson notes a connection between apples and the Vanir, a tribe of gods associated with fertility in Norse mythology, citing an instance of eleven golden apples being given to woo the beautiful Gerr by Skrnir, who was acting as messenger for the major Vanir god Freyr in stanzas 1. Skrnisml. Davidson also notes a further connection between fertility and apples in Norse mythology in chapter 2 of the Vlsunga saga when the major goddess Frigg sends King Rerir an apple after he prays to Odin for a child, Friggs messenger in the guise of a crow drops the apple in his lap as he sits atop a mound. Rerirs wifes consumption of the apple results in a six year pregnancy and the Caesarean section birth of their sonthe hero Vlsung. Further, Davidson points out the strange phrase Apples of Hel used in an 1. Thorbiorn Brnarson. She states this may imply that the apple was thought of by Brnarson as the food of the dead. Whole30 Diet. Further, Davidson notes that the potentially Germanic goddess Nehalennia is sometimes depicted with apples and that parallels exist in early Irish stories. Davidson asserts that while cultivation of the apple in Northern Europe extends back to at least the time of the Roman Empire and came to Europe from the Near East, the native varieties of apple trees growing in Northern Europe are small and bitter. Davidson concludes that in the figure of Iunn we must have a dim reflection of an old symbol that of the guardian goddess of the life giving fruit of the other world. Greek mythology. Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit.