"An Apple A Day Keeps Doctor Away"

Dr. BHASKAR CHAKRABORTY

In recent years, if you roam around the fruit markets of our country, you will find bright, shiny and lucrative imported apples to attract customers rather then our own apples which we all used to see couple of years back from Himachal Pradesh & Kashmir. These lucrative, juicy and bright apples are labelled with stickers (USA, Turkey, NZ) from where they are imported. Compared to our own apples, these apples are costly but customers are found satisfied while buying these apples because they found our own apples are not so bright in colour and shiny and even in cases appears dull.

Time has come when we need to create awareness amongst our people the lucrative story behind these important apples.

Apples are packed with fiber, vitamin C and a variety of antioxidants. They are incredibly satisfying and serve as an excellent snack when you're feeling hungry in between meals. Though majority of us are familiar with health benefits of apples still I would like to add few things which may not be known to all.

Nutritional facts of apple:

The nutrients in apples include macronutrients (e.g., sugars, fibers, pectin, fat, protein), organic acids (e.g., malic acid), vitamins (e.g., C, E, B6), minerals (e.g., potassium, calcium, nitrogen, magnesium), and trace elements (e.g., zinc, iron, copper, manganese).Some of the most well studied antioxidant compounds in apples include quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-rhamnoside, catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin, cyanidin-3-galactoside, coumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, and phloridzin.  The major phenolic groups found in apple are hydroxybenzoic acids (gallic acid, protocatechuic acid), hydroxycinnamic acids (chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, sinapic acid), flavanols (catechin and epicatechin) and their oligo-(procyanidins) and polymeric structures (proanthocyanidins).

How these elements and antioxidants boost up our immunity system:

The essential elements and antioxidants play crucial role in protecting our heart, boosts brain health, helps us lose weight, lowers risk of type 2 diabetes and most importantly fights against developing cancer cells in our body!

Why should we buy our own apples rather than imported apples?

Composition of an apple is same even if it comes from USA or Kashmir! Question is why important apples are costly?

To extend the fruit's life and to keep them looking shiny and attractive on supermarket shelves, many food producers recoat the apples with a food-grade wax. The food-grade wax used to coat apples, as well as other fruits is typically a type of emulsion made with carnauba wax. Experts say it is essential to preserve the moisture content. Fruits and vegetables have a natural wax coating that retains the moisture in them which is around 80-95%. But for the purpose of packaging, these fruits and vegetables are thoroughly washed due to which the natural coat of wax wears off and has to be replaced by artificial wax to prevent them from water loss.

While there is no worry about eating the wax on fruits, they should be well washed mostly to remove bacteria that may have stuck to the surface. Thus, it is important to remove the wax from fruits before eating them. The wax should be removed using warm, soapy water and a soft cloth and dried completely before consuming. This will ensure that you are not ingesting any of the potentially harmful chemicals in the wax.

(Imported USA Apples)

(Our own Kashmiri apples)

In our country, as per the Government of India  Act i.e., "Food Safety and Standard Regulations", the natural waxes like candelilla wax, beeswax and carnauba wax are the only permissible food waxes in different fruits and vegetables. In order to determine the composition, the physical and chemical properties need to be known. All of the natural waxes have the esters group which are not present in petroleum waxes as they are made of alkanes of various carbons. “FT-IR Spectroscopy” is a method by which samples of various waxes are passed through the FTIR Spectrometer. All natural waxes have the presence of ester group which are not there in artificial waxes. FSSAI permits only natural waxes and therefore the FTIR tested wax coatings applied on products are not considered harmful.

Recently, I procured few such kind of bright, juicy and fresh apples and tasted the presence of esters (an important functional group in organic molecules) in my research laboratory and found that these apples do not contain “Ester” functionalities! The fact confirms the waxes used to preserve the freshness of these imported apples violating FSSAI regulations and consumption of these apples is definitely a matter of great concern.

The non-permitted wax can be quite harmful for us. It can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain as stated by researchers! Recent research says the wax coating that involve morpholine can cause liver or kidney disfunction as well.

So, dear readers be careful while buying apples even if you buy imported apples clean them as advised.

(Dr. Bhaskar Chakraborty is Associate Professor & Head of Department

Department of Chemistry,  NBB Degree College, Tadong, Gangtok. Email: bhaskargtk@yahoo.com)