Cherries Nutrition facts

Cherries

Wonderfully delicious, cherry fruit is packed full of health-benefiting nutrients and unique antioxidants. Cherries are native to Eastern Europe and Asia Minor regions.
Botanically, the fruit is a “drupe” (stone fruit), belonging to the large Rosaceae family of small tree fruits in the genus, Prunus. Some of the common “drupe” family fruits are plums, peaches, apricots, etc. Although several species of cherries exist, two popular cultivars are wild or sweet cherry and sour or tart cherry. While sweet cherries belong to the species of Prunus avium, tart variety belongs to that of Prunus cerasus.
Cherries are drupe fruits with a central “stony-hard” seed surrounded by fleshy edible pulp. They come in small sizes, measuring about 2 cm in diameter. Externally they covered by bright 'shiny' red or purple, thin peel.
The West Indian cherry, known as acerola (Malpighia emarginata), is native to West Indian islands and grown in Mexico, and Texas regions in North America. Acerola belongs to the tropical fruit-bearing shrubs in the family Malpighiaceae and contains 2-3 tiny seeds. Acerola composes exceptionally high levels of vitamin-C and vitamin-A than North American and European cherries.