The Zucchini, also called Courgette or Baby marrow, is a good summer squash, an herbaceous plant. Zucchini comes from the squashes first domesticated in Mesoamerica over 7000 years ago, but zucchini was bred in Milan, Italy in the 19th century. Different names in different countries know the fruit.
- Zucchini : – The name is used in Australian, American, New Zealand, and Canadian English. It descends from Italian Zucca marrow (plural masculine diminutive).
- Courgette : – It is used in British, New Zealand, South Africa, and Hiberno-Malaysian English. It is taken from French, where courgette is a diminutive of courage.
- Baby marrow : – The name baby marrow is used in South Africa to name a zucchini harvested in a highly immature state of the size of a finger.
Interesting Facts about Zucchini
Harvesting of fruits: – The zucchini fruits are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp are still soft and edible. It is closely related to the marrow, and hence its fruit can be called marrow after it matures.
Too big fruit: – The world’s most enormous zucchini was 69.5 inches long and weighed 65 lbs. You can see many sizes of zucchini in the world, and mostly they are significant.
Life Cycle: – Zucchini fruit comes from a flower, but it is used as a vegetable, and it is preferably consumed fried or stuffed. The most flavourful zucchinis are of small to medium size.
The fruit characteristics: – Zucchinis contain 95 percent water making them a low-calorie nack. It helps to maintain heart health due to the fibers in it.
Types of zucchini: – The yellow variety of zucchini tastes sweeter than the green variety, although both varieties are cultivated in many places.
Flavor and recipe: – Because of the mild flavor, zucchinis are used in place of spaghetti and lasagne noodles.
Celebration of zucchini day: – In August, a giant zucchini festival takes place in Obetz, Ohio.
A good option for bananas: – A zucchini contains more potassium than a banana. One can also eat zucchini blossoms by frying or stuffing them.
Zucchini shares parents with watermelon: – zucchini is closely related to watermelon as both belong to the family Cucurbitaceae and pumpkin, cucumber, and gourds of all types.
Bigger is not better: – In the case of zucchini, harvesting the plant when it is too immature prevents the too hard and seedy plant from developing. Comparatively, young zucchini have tender rinds and are more edible.
France first quoted zucchini as a food source: – After introducing zucchini in Europe, the French did not accept it as fruit or vegetable because of its bland and watery nature. But when the culinary dish of ratatouille from Provence became popular at familiar places, they launched it as good food.
Milan, Italy, first reported the zucchini plant as edible in 1901: – This is the earliest evidence of the zucchini plant as a food source. A similar type of squash was made long before that in Central America. During the European colonization of America, they were introduced in Europe, where the cultivation started.
The only fruit with ‘Z’: – Zucchini is the only fruit that begins with ‘Z.’ You will not find any other fruit name starting from this letter. This is a fun fact which is very interesting as there is no fruit from ‘Z’ even after that.
The word means small gourd: – The meaning of zucchini is small gourd. Before it became a food source, small desiccated containers for tobacco were used. By the 1840s, the Tuscan word zucchini was incorporated with the fruit.
Zucchini flowers are edible: When the female zucchini flowers are converted into fruit. Once you see the orange-yellow zucchini petals, you can harvest the flowers and swollen zucchini attached to them.
Zucchini is a fruit: – Though it is a summer favorite and consumed as a vegetable, botanically speaking, it is a fruit, but it starts as a beautiful flower.
Supports healthy digestion: – It is rich in water which helps soften the stools. It contains both insoluble and soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to stool; hence food moves quickly into the guts. Soluble fiber feeds the helpful bacteria in your gut, making short-chain fatty acids nourish the cells.
Improve heart health: Pectin is the soluble fiber in zucchini, which effectively reduces total and bad (LDL) cholesterol levels. Helping to control cholesterol levels means increasing heart health. As per the study, around 2.2 mg/dl of bad cholesterol can be reduced by consuming 2-10 gm of soluble fiber per day.
Controls the blood pressure: – Zucchini contains potassium which helps to reduce blood pressure by dilating the blood vessels. Heart disease and stroke risk are reduced because of healthier blood pressure.
High in antioxidants: – antioxidants play an essential role in protecting the body from free radicals which damage the cells. Carotenoids such as zeaxanthin, lutein, and beta-carotene are present in zucchini that may benefit your eyes, heart, and skin, giving protection from prostate cancer.
Help in weight loss: – As the fruit is rich in water and low in calories, it can help you to reduce weight as you fill full. The rate of weight gain reduces due to the consumption of low-calorie fruits.
Increase vision strength: – The contents like vitamin C and beta-carotene supports improved eye health, and the antioxidants can accumulate in your retina, improve vision, and reduce eye-related diseases.
Shows anti-cancer effects: – Some studies have revealed that zucchini extract can help to kill or restrict the growth of specific cancer cells. Though the effect does not cover many types, it can still be helpful in medical science.
Help a healthy prostate: – Though the studies are carried out on animals, there is a ray of hope it might work for a human being. Zucchini seeds extracts may help to limit the enlargement of the prostate due to which common urinary, sexual problems at old age can occur.
Control thyroid function: – Studies on rats revealed that zucchini peels might help keep the thyroid hormone levels stable, but the studies on human beings are yet to be conducted, so it is just wishful thinking.
Rich in many nutrients: – Zucchini is rich in many minerals, vitamins, and other beneficial compounds. One cup (223 gm) of cooked zucchini gives –
- Protein – 1 gm
- Carbs – 3 gm
- Calories – 17
- Fatless than 1 gm
- Fiber – 1 gm
- Sugar – 1 gm
- Vitamin A – 40 percent of RDI
- Vitamin C – 14 percent of RDI
- Vitamin B6 – 7 percent of RDI
- Potassium – 13 percent of RDI
- Folate – 8 percent of RDI
- Manganese – 16 percent of RDI
- Magnesium – 10 percent of RDI
- Copper – 8 percent of RDI
- Phosphorous – 7 percent of RDI
- Thiamine – 5 percent of RDI
Zucchini is a fruit harvested from flowers like many other fruits worldwide. Such types of fruits are found to be having very high nutritional value and are predicted/proved to be helpful for human health. Further studies in the future will make the essentiality of such fruit more apparent, and also, ample light might be put on the methods of their consumption to get the maximum benefit out of them.
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