Breadfruit, is an exotic fruit growing throughout Southeast Asia and most Pacific Ocean Island. Breadfruit is ovoid and has a rough green skin. It is a staple in many tropical region. Due to its high content of vitamins, Breadfruit is also used in medicine.

1. BREADFRUIT
Family : Moraceae
Scientist name : Artocarpus altilis
Other names : Fruit à pain, fruta de pan

2. Where Does It Come From?
The Breadruit is an exotic fruit growing
throughout Southeast Asia and most Pacific
Ocean islands.
Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food
plants, with a single tree producing up to 200
or more fruits per season. Productivity varies
between wet and dry areas. In the Caribbean, a
conservative estimate is 25 fruits per tree.
The breadfruit tree is fast growing, reaching 26
metres high often with a clear trunk to 6
metres. There are many spreading branches,
some thick with lateral foliage-bearing
branchlets.

3. What Does It Look Like?
• The grapefruit-sized, ovoid fruit has a rough surface,
and each fruit is divided into many achene, each
achene surrounded by a fleshy perianth and growing
on a fleshy receptacle. The fruit stalk (pedicel) varies
from 1 to 5 in (2.5-12.5 cm) long.
• In the green stage, the fruit is hard and the interior
is white, starchy.
When fully ripe, the fruit is soft, the interior is
cream, yellow or pasty coloured.
The seeds are irregularly oval, rounded at one end,
pointed at the other, about 2 cm long dull-brown
with darker stripes. In the centre of seedless fruits
there is a cylindrical or oblong core, in some types
covered with hairs bearing flat, brown.

4. How To Use It?
• Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical
regions. When cooked, the taste of moderately
ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or
similar to fresh-baked bread. Very ripe breadfruit
becomes sweet, as the starch converts to sugar.
• Breadfruit is very rich in starch, and before being
eaten, it is roasted, baked, fried or boiled
• A common product is a mixture of cooked or
fermented breadfruit mash mixed with coconut
milk and baked in banana leaves. Whole fruits can
be cooked in an open fire, then cored and filled
with other foods, such as coconut milk, sugar and
butter, cooked meats, or other fruits.

5. What Are Breadfruit’s Benefits?
• Breadfruit is roughly 25% carbohydrates and 70% water. It has an average amount of
vitamin C, small amounts of minerals (potassium and zinc) and thiamin.
• Breadfruit was widely and diversely used among Pacific Islanders. Its lightweight
wood is resistant to termites and shipworms.
• It is also used in traditional medicine to treat illnesses that range from sore eyes to
sciatica.
• Its wood pulp can also be used to make paper, called breadfruit tapa.