September Herb of the Month: Apple

Photo credit: Franz Eugen Köhler’s Medizinalräte-Pflanzen

The apple is probably the most widely eaten tree-fruit in the world. Wild apples were collected and eaten long before apple trees were domesticated, and their remains have been found in numerous European archeological sites from Neolithic times.

LATIN NAME
Malus domestica

SYNONYMS
Malus pumila, 
M. communis,
M. sylvestris (crab-apple)

FAMILY
Rose (Rosaceae)

BOTANY
The apple tree is deciduous (sheds its leaves in autumn) and can be up to 9 meters tall. The leaves are dark green simple oval shapes with serrated margins and slightly downy undersides. 

Apple trees blossom in spring while the leaves are budding, producing small bouquets of white flowers with five petals and a pink tinge. The fruit, botanically speaking a pome, usually ripens in late summer or early autumn.

Some varieties need to be eaten, dried, juiced, cooked or frozen immediately, while others will keep all winter, becoming sweeter over time.

MEDICINAL / EDIBLE PARTS
Fruit

WHERE FOUND
Gardens and hedgerows

DOSE
It is said that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Active ingredients
Vitamin C, potassium, malic acid, citric acid, tannins, bitters, volatile oils, enzymes, fibre, pectin, sucrose, fructose. The flavour of apples is a combination of acidity, sweet, bitter and aroma. Apple scent is a mixture of 250 different volatile ingredients.

Medicinal and culinary use:
Apples can be eaten raw, used for cooking and desserts, or for making juice and cider.

They are detoxifying and help lower blood cholesterol levels. Apples stimulate the secretion of digestive juices and they aid protein digestion. Their pectin binds with cholesterol and bile acids, enhancing their excretion from the body.

The pectin also makes apples a good remedy for diarrhoea. But paradoxically, they are also laxative, stimulate digestion, and are good for arthritic complaints such as gout. They are first-class blood purifiers, particularly useful for arthritic complaints and gout, and for eczema and other skin problems. Apples can also help protect the body against the effects of environmental toxins.

Use tart apples to make jelly. Their high pectin content will help soft fruit jams jell. Use 500g of chopped tart apples (either unripe or naturally tart varieties) to 1-2 kilos of other fruit. Add sugar and other ingredients as specified in your recipe, and follow the prescribed instructions.

Warnings:  Some people with allergies can react to apples.

Ecology and folklore
Apples are grown all over the world and have long been valued for their fruits, partly because their many different cultivars mean that they available most of the year, and some of them keep well. Thousands of apple cultivars are available, but only around 30 are grown commercially. The most well-known varieties are Cox’s Orange Pippin, Bramleys, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Breburn, Fuji, Granny Smith and Gala. 

Wild apples ripen in the late autumn, while others, especially the varieties from countries with short summers, ripen within 10 weeks of flowering. Others take 6 month to ripen after flowering. It is possible to have apples ripening, either on the tree or in storage, from July until April/May the following year.

It was custom in medieval times to plant fruit trees in hedgerows, garden hedges and at the edges of commons. A practice it would be nice to bring back again.

Always choose organic ingredients whenever possible.

APPLE RECIPES

BAKED APPLES

Serves 4

4 cooking apples, cored
4 bananas, mashed
10 dates, stoned and chopped
4 tbsp brazil nuts, chopped
3 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp lemon juice
100ml maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 180ºC / gas mark 4. Cut a line horizontally around the middle in the skin of each apple. Mix half the mashed banana with the chopped dates and stuff the mixture into the apple. Sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Mix the tahini with the rest of the banana, lemon juice and maple syrup. Add a little water and stir to a rich sauce. Pour over the baked apples.

BEETROOT AND APPLE JUICE

Serves 4

250g fresh beetroot, quartered
3 apples, cored and quartered
To garnish: 1 slice of lemon on each glass

Juice the beetroot and the apple and mix well. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Make a smoothie with the same ingredients by blending them with enough cold water and ice to make a smooth consistency.

RUBY SALAD

250g red cabbage (fresh or fermented), finely chopped
2 red apples, cut in small cubes
100g walnuts, chopped
Olive oil and cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste

Mix the cabbage and apples with the nuts and dress with oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve as a first course or as a side dish.