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They are easy to grow across a wide range of continental, temperate climates. They do have a downside though: unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating t

They are easy to grow across a wide range of continental, temperate climates. They do have a downside though: unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome. Here are some of the cultivars that are known to have low levels of acetogenins: Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman, Wells. Here's a study: https://www.doc-developpement-durable.org/file/Culture/Arbres-Fruitiers/FICHES_ARBRES/Corossolier_Annona-muritica/Pawpaw%20Acetogenin%20Compounds.pdf https://www.doc-developpement-durable.org/file/Culture/Arbre... Also, folks in California should grow Cherimoyas and/or Atemoyas instead. They grow better in our climate and are generally better and safer.

Loughla 3y ago
In the Midwest there's some kind of disease, I think it's a fungus, that has killed pretty well all native trees, and will kill them if you plant them. Source: the three groves we used to have, and the trees that keep dying when I plant them in my yard.
foobiekr 3y ago
I was not aware cherimoya was documented as lower incidence.
01100011 3y ago
Many years ago I tasted a ripe cherimoya from a farmer's market in Cambria, CA. It ruined me and sent me on a neverending and expensive quest to find another ripe cherimoya in a grocery store. The fruit was amazing, save for the giant seeds. Alas I have never found another one as good as that. Most of the time you spend $7+ only to find you have yet another bad specimen.
- anon84873628 3y ago
  Lots of direct sellers on the internet. Join the "fruit 4 sale" group on Facebook to start.
- dharma1 3y ago
  One of my favourite fruits. Now more widely available in Europe thanks to farmers starting to produce them in Southern Spain - you can find them in the UK at Asian food shops for ~£2 each. Just leave to ripen until soft, otherwise won’t be nice. Would love to find a good exotic fruit wholesaler in London/UK for better pricing!
unnamed76ri 3y ago
I used to forage pawpaws and sell them at a farmers market. When I started to learn of the potential health risks I stopped. Even if the chance was slim, I didn’t want to be the cause of someone’s health issue.
systems_glitch 3y ago
Didn't know about the potential toxicity of the fruit, thanks for posting. They grow native back home and are often eaten raw.
snowwrestler 3y ago
Do you have any other sources for health concerns about pawpaws? This slide deck jumps all over the place and has a big disclaimer up front that it is educational only and not intended to actually mitigate any disease.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  The toxicity of pawpaws when eaten frequently is well-documented, and should you type your question into a search engine rather than the comment box you would find no shortage of answers.
  - wil421 3y ago
    Your comment provided little value and the tone is condescending.
  - supertofu 3y ago
    You could have just said "I don't know".
  - snowwrestler 3y ago
    It’s actually not well-documented, which was my point.
resolutebat 3y ago
Wikipedia says that pawpaw "bark, leaves, twigs, and seeds" contain acetogenins, but it is unclear whether the fruit pulp itself does.
- barathr 3y ago
  The pulp does, as discussed in the study I linked.
arcticbull 3y ago
From the link you provided: > Sensitivity to acetogenin compounds may be limited to those with a specific genetic predisposition in Guadeloupe Also says the FDA says there's nothing to worry about. > Kentucky State University asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an opinion on this topic, and their conclusion was that pawpaw has a long history of food use and the FDA does not currently have any evidence that pawpaw is unsafe to eat. I didn't read your study as a warning against their consumption rather that it could explain the prevalence of Parkinson's like symptoms in a specifically genetically predisposed population in Guadeloupe. And that at least young people's symptoms went away when they stopped consuming anonna fruit products. ("Younger people who had symptoms and stopped consuming Annona products reversed their symptoms") Did I miss something? The link also seems to think it could be useful in treating cancer, demonstrating in vivo activity. I’m not a doctor but this seems to read more like the high oxalic acid content warnings on things like starfruit. If you’re sensitive don’t eat it, and if you’re not, try and eat other things once in a while and stop worrying so much.
- barathr 3y ago
  The study is a botany study, not a medical one. There are a bunch of medical studies out there of fruits from this genus and their medical effects.
  - kjs3 3y ago
    Then why didn't you cite one of those 'bunch' and not one that doesn't at all make your point?
    - barathr 3y ago
      Um, because I was trying to provide helpful information about what cultivars to grow since this post is about growing Pawpaw.
Alex3917 3y ago
> unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome. Although acetogenins are very neurotoxic, they also have a fairly low bioavailability when the ripe fruits are eaten out of hand.[1] If you stick to eating only one or two fruits per day for the few weeks they're in season, you're unlikely to develop progressive supranuclear palsy. It's really if you're doing things to increase the bioavailability, like brewing the leaves into tea, cooking the fruit with fats, infusing the fruit into alcohol, etc. that you're more likely to run into issues. In the 400+ years of people eating the fruit in the United States, there is exactly one death associated with pawpaws, and that happened to an orchardist who had been eating the fruit for 30 years straight. Had they been aware that their PSP symptoms were being caused by pawpaw consumption, they could have stopped eating the fruit after 15 years and likely would have been fine. Keep in mind also that pawpaw consumption likely also reduces your risk of cancer, and since you're much more likely to get cancer than PSP, moderate pawpaw consumption is almost certainly a net positive for your health. There is also some new research that's come out within the last few weeks suggesting that metformin (also thought to be a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor) might reduce your risk of covid, so perhaps the fruit even has that going for it as well. Regardless, given that you can talk with plenty of folks who have eating 2,500+ over their lifetimes who don't seem to be having any ill effects, the average person probably doesn't have a whole lot to worry about by eating a handful of pounds of fruit per year. Also FWIW, here is a video I made last year showing my trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJruAx0osg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJruAx0osg And if you want more pawpaw content, Timothy Lane (Ockoo Farm) has the best YouTube channel on them right now: https://www.youtube.com/@abyssquick/videos https://www.youtube.com/@abyssquick/videos [1] Timothy Lane claims the bioavailability of the different acetogenins generally ranges from 1 - 5%, which seems about right although I have not fact checked this extensively myself.

Loughla 3y ago

In the Midwest there's some kind of disease, I think it's a fungus, that has killed pretty well all native trees, and will kill them if you plant them. Source: the three groves we used to have, and the trees that keep dying when I plant them in my yard.

foobiekr 3y ago

I was not aware cherimoya was documented as lower incidence.

01100011 3y ago

Many years ago I tasted a ripe cherimoya from a farmer's market in Cambria, CA. It ruined me and sent me on a neverending and expensive quest to find another ripe cherimoya in a grocery store. The fruit was amazing, save for the giant seeds. Alas I have never found another one as good as that. Most of the time you spend $7+ only to find you have yet another bad specimen.

anon84873628 3y ago
Lots of direct sellers on the internet. Join the "fruit 4 sale" group on Facebook to start.
dharma1 3y ago
One of my favourite fruits. Now more widely available in Europe thanks to farmers starting to produce them in Southern Spain - you can find them in the UK at Asian food shops for ~£2 each. Just leave to ripen until soft, otherwise won’t be nice. Would love to find a good exotic fruit wholesaler in London/UK for better pricing!

unnamed76ri 3y ago

I used to forage pawpaws and sell them at a farmers market. When I started to learn of the potential health risks I stopped. Even if the chance was slim, I didn’t want to be the cause of someone’s health issue.

systems_glitch 3y ago

Didn't know about the potential toxicity of the fruit, thanks for posting. They grow native back home and are often eaten raw.

snowwrestler 3y ago

Do you have any other sources for health concerns about pawpaws? This slide deck jumps all over the place and has a big disclaimer up front that it is educational only and not intended to actually mitigate any disease.

margalabargala 3y ago
The toxicity of pawpaws when eaten frequently is well-documented, and should you type your question into a search engine rather than the comment box you would find no shortage of answers.
- wil421 3y ago
  Your comment provided little value and the tone is condescending.
- supertofu 3y ago
  You could have just said "I don't know".
- snowwrestler 3y ago
  It’s actually not well-documented, which was my point.

resolutebat 3y ago

Wikipedia says that pawpaw "bark, leaves, twigs, and seeds" contain acetogenins, but it is unclear whether the fruit pulp itself does.

barathr 3y ago
The pulp does, as discussed in the study I linked.

arcticbull 3y ago

From the link you provided: > Sensitivity to acetogenin compounds may be limited to those with a specific genetic predisposition in Guadeloupe Also says the FDA says there's nothing to worry about. > Kentucky State University asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an opinion on this topic, and their conclusion was that pawpaw has a long history of food use and the FDA does not currently have any evidence that pawpaw is unsafe to eat. I didn't read your study as a warning against their consumption rather that it could explain the prevalence of Parkinson's like symptoms in a specifically genetically predisposed population in Guadeloupe. And that at least young people's symptoms went away when they stopped consuming anonna fruit products. ("Younger people who had symptoms and stopped consuming Annona products reversed their symptoms") Did I miss something? The link also seems to think it could be useful in treating cancer, demonstrating in vivo activity. I’m not a doctor but this seems to read more like the high oxalic acid content warnings on things like starfruit. If you’re sensitive don’t eat it, and if you’re not, try and eat other things once in a while and stop worrying so much.

barathr 3y ago
The study is a botany study, not a medical one. There are a bunch of medical studies out there of fruits from this genus and their medical effects.
- kjs3 3y ago
  Then why didn't you cite one of those 'bunch' and not one that doesn't at all make your point?
  - barathr 3y ago
    Um, because I was trying to provide helpful information about what cultivars to grow since this post is about growing Pawpaw.

Alex3917 3y ago

> unless you get a low-acetogenin variety, eating them more than once in a while has health impacts, possibly a Parkinson's-like syndrome. Although acetogenins are very neurotoxic, they also have a fairly low bioavailability when the ripe fruits are eaten out of hand.[1] If you stick to eating only one or two fruits per day for the few weeks they're in season, you're unlikely to develop progressive supranuclear palsy. It's really if you're doing things to increase the bioavailability, like brewing the leaves into tea, cooking the fruit with fats, infusing the fruit into alcohol, etc. that you're more likely to run into issues. In the 400+ years of people eating the fruit in the United States, there is exactly one death associated with pawpaws, and that happened to an orchardist who had been eating the fruit for 30 years straight. Had they been aware that their PSP symptoms were being caused by pawpaw consumption, they could have stopped eating the fruit after 15 years and likely would have been fine. Keep in mind also that pawpaw consumption likely also reduces your risk of cancer, and since you're much more likely to get cancer than PSP, moderate pawpaw consumption is almost certainly a net positive for your health. There is also some new research that's come out within the last few weeks suggesting that metformin (also thought to be a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor) might reduce your risk of covid, so perhaps the fruit even has that going for it as well. Regardless, given that you can talk with plenty of folks who have eating 2,500+ over their lifetimes who don't seem to be having any ill effects, the average person probably doesn't have a whole lot to worry about by eating a handful of pounds of fruit per year. Also FWIW, here is a video I made last year showing my trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJruAx0osg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJruAx0osg And if you want more pawpaw content, Timothy Lane (Ockoo Farm) has the best YouTube channel on them right now: https://www.youtube.com/@abyssquick/videos https://www.youtube.com/@abyssquick/videos [1] Timothy Lane claims the bioavailability of the different acetogenins generally ranges from 1 - 5%, which seems about right although I have not fact checked this extensively myself.