Passion fruit, also known as passion fruit, Brazilian fruit, and egg fruit, is the common name for the fruit of a perennial woody vine in the Passifloraceae ( Passiflor aceae) family.

Its fruit is ellipsoidal or orbicular, originating in the tropics. Introduced in 1913, it is now cultivated in Taiwan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing and Yunnan, etc. According to the form and quality of passion fruit, it can be divided into purple passion fruit, yellow passion fruit and other types.

Functions of passion fruit

1. Anti-anxiety and sedative function
In the United States and some European countries, passion fruit is widely used as a source of anti-anxiety or sedative drugs.

Dhawan et al. conducted experiments with the device specialized in determining anxiety, i.e., elevated cross maze, to determine the effect of methanol extract of passion fruit on mice, and the results show that the dose of 10mg / kg has a significant anxiolytic effect.

Deng et al. extracted passion fruit with ethanol and water as solvents, and used the same method to study its anxiolytic properties, and the results showed a dose-dependent pattern, with lower doses showing mainly anxiolytic properties and higher doses showing sedative characteristics.

2. Anti-inflammatory effect

Passion fruit is rich in flavonoids, which have good anti-inflammatory effects.

Beninca et al. with carrageenan gum, bradykinin and histamine-induced mice to establish an inflammation model, and dexamethasone as a control group, measured the anti-inflammatory effect of the aqueous and n-butanol extracts of passion fruit, and found that both substances can inhibit the migration of leukocytes, pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators of the release of the anti-inflammatory effect is embodied.

3. Anti-addiction function
As early as in the Indian traditional medicine and health care system, it has been used as an anti-dependence substance of morphine. There are also studies simultaneously reported on the passion fruit on marijuana, Valium, alcohol formation of dependence experiments, all show that passion fruit has anti-addiction effect.

Passion fruit has an antagonistic effect on a variety of addictive substances, suggesting that it has a broad application prospect in the treatment of drug addiction, but also for the development of a safe and effective drug rehabilitation drugs to provide new ideas.

4. Antioxidant function
Passion fruit contains polyphenols with antioxidant properties, it can effectively remove excess free radicals in the body, free radical-induced damage to biological macromolecules to play a protective role in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases in organisms, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease has an important role in the process.

Product development of passion fruit

In addition to a variety of bioactive functions of passion fruit, fruit processing has also become a major research hotspot in recent years.

1. Juice development
Passion fruit fruit is large, its juice is egg yellow, due to the rich flavor, unique taste, known as “the king of drinks” reputation.

(1) Fruit tea
Tea, as an ancient Chinese traditional beverage, has the function of preventing cardiovascular disease, cancer prevention, anti-aging and so on.

Pu Haiyan and other passion fruit, tea as the main raw material to develop a passion fruit tea health drink, both tea and passion fruit efficacy and flavor.

And its production process was studied, indicating that black tea pH5, temperature 90 ℃, tea and water ratio of 1:50 extraction 20min when the tea juice quality is better, but also through orthogonal experiments to derive the optimal formula and the study of the stabilizing composite agent on its stabilizing effect.

Zhou Cuiying et al. also studied the production process of passion fruit green tea, adding more than 0.2% of the passion fruit juice concentrate, fruit tea taste soft, refreshing and delicious.

(2) Composite fruit juice
Passion fruit juice color is refreshing and pleasing to the eye, not only can be individually processed into juice, but also with other fruits and vegetables such as snowdrops, pineapple, etc. Mixed into a composite juice, in order to improve the taste and aroma of the juice.

Yin Jianzhong and others also take passion fruit as the main raw material, add the right amount of fresh carrot juice, milk powder, a variety of vitamins and its auxiliary materials, the development of excellent taste, unique flavor, quality and stability of the composite beverage, the beverage will be fresh fruit and vegetable juice and milk organic combination, with high quality protein, high vitamin characteristics.

3）Fermented fruit juice
The juice processed from passion fruit with insufficient ripeness has insufficient aroma and is prone to produce unpleasant astringent flavor. Wei Yufang obtained passion fruit fruit wine by fermentation method with passion fruit, sugar and highly alcoholic liquor as the main raw materials, and made passion fruit cocktail with special taste based on fruit wine with certain auxiliary ingredients.

Cheng Qianwei and so on conducted fruit vinegar processing experiments on passion fruit and studied the production process, determined the suitable conditions of alcohol fermentation and acetic acid fermentation, and the fruit vinegar obtained contains the unique flavor of passion fruit, soft acidity, rich nutrition, and has the effects of protecting cardiovascular system, regulating the body’s acid-base balance, and improving the immunity of the organism, and it has both the nutritional health care effects of fruit and vinegar.

2.Peel development
1）Jam and dried fruit
People usually focus on the passion fruit juice processing and utilization, but 35% ~ 40% of the peel is often discarded or processed into feed, resulting in a certain waste, so many scholars began to try to develop the peel.

Fresh passion fruit pericarp, boiled in boiling water, cold water rinsing and scooping out the inner pericarp, add sucrose, the right amount of citric acid and passion fruit juice can be made from the original juice grinding passion fruit jam, the pericarp contains natural pigments and fruity flavors, no need to artificially coloring and perfuming.

The jam can be used to blend fruit juices, smoothies, ices, milk tea, and can be applied to pastries or made into pastry fillings.

Tang Wanyong et al. used hot and cold sugar cooking method to process yellow passion fruit and purple passion fruit peel for dried fruit, and the comparative analysis concluded that yellow passion fruit is more suitable for the preparation of dried fruit, and mastering the dosage of sugar and the time of sugar cooking is the core of the process.

Liang Wenzhen et al. in the study of low-sugar dried fruit processing technology, the multiple cooking method and rapid cooking method of two different low-sugar dried fruit process to do a comparison, the results show that the rapid cooking method of rapid sugar seepage speed, processing time is shorter, more suitable for industrial processing, and also proposed to add citric acid in the sugar solution solution and other measures to extend the shelf-life, through the addition of sodium carboxymethylcellulose, effectively preventing the phenomenon of drying out of the occurrence of insufficient sugar, and improve the sensory quality of the product. by adding sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, effectively preventing the dryness that occurs when the sugar is not eaten enough, and improving the sensory quality of the product.

2) Pectin
Pectin is a kind of hydrophilic plant gum, with excellent taste and low sugar, low calorie performance, widely used in food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical industry.

Passion fruit contains 2.0% to 4.5% pectin, which is a high quality raw material for pectin extraction.Pinheiro et al. optimized the experimental conditions for obtaining high-fat pectin from passion fruit rind using citric acid by using response surface analysis, and found that the concentration of citric acid was the key factor.

3.Seed development
Passion fruit seeds are black in color, accounting for 8% to 14% of the fresh weight of the fruit, and are generally discarded as waste when processing fruit juice. In fact, passion fruit seeds have high research and development value, the seeds contain 21.7% to 25.2% of the oil, which consists of fatty acids are mainly linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, linolenic acid, unsaturated fatty acids more than 85%.

The common methods of extracting passion fruit seed oil include pressing method, organic solvent extraction method and microwave extraction method, etc., which can obtain clarified and transparent, odorless and good quality edible oil.