Cocona (solanum sessiliflorum) is a tropical shrub belonging to the Solanaceae family along with tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants.
The fruit of cocona is a red, orange or yellow edible berry. Cocona is native to the Andean region of South America, where it is occasionally cultivated for human consumption.
The thin, tough skin is coated with a slightly prickly, peach-like fuzz until the fruit is fully ripe, then it is smooth, golden- to orange-yellow, burnt-orange, red, red-brown or deep purple-red, and has a bitter taste.
Many people claim it tastes pleasantly tart and very fruity, making it a good complement to many other foods.
The flesh has a mild flavour faintly suggestive of tomato, while the pulp has a pleasant, lime-like acidity.
It is widely consumed in the form of spicy sauces, juices, nectars, ice-creams, paletas, and desserts.
It has high water content (about 90%) and is quite useful for preparing juices. It is very rich in iron and vitamin B5.
In order to prevent the deterioration process, the fruit should be frozen. Cocona is valued for its valuable medicinal properties which include migraine relief; in traditional medicine, it is used as antidiabetic, antivenom, scabicide, hypertension, it has also been used as a useful scabicide and for treating burns.
The Cocona is a strong predominance of female parent or maternal inheritance in fruit characteristics. Crossing female flowers of plants with large fruits lead to large fruit.
Cocona has multiple uses and also has a distinctive flavour that does not compare to the taste of other fruits, has low degree of sugar, the fruit juice has a pleasant taste which helps us because it will be more accepted in the market along with all the nutrients it has.
Fruits have always known to be healthy and as such must be consumed daily in order to protect the body from health conditions.
