- Apple. Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, 1885
- Malus distribution
- Apple in bloom
Family: Rosaceae;
Genus: Apple (Malus).
GBIF:
The apple symbol in Unicode — 🍎
Apple (lat. Malus) is a genus of deciduous trees and shrubs from the family Rosaceae, order Rosales, with spherical sweet or sweet-sour fruits (apples). It originates from the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. The wood is dense, strong, easily cut, and polishes well; suitable for turning, joinery, and small crafts.
The English word "apple" comes from Old English æppel, from Proto-Germanic *ap(a)laz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl (also the source of Latin "Avellina" and ultimately related to similar words in Celtic and Baltic languages). The Latin words mālum ("apple") and mālus ("apple tree") also trace back to the same PIE root.
Wild apples have always been a food source for the ancestors of modern humans. The homeland of the domesticated apple tree is the territory of modern southern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (the foothills of the Alatau mountains), where Malus sieversii, the wild ancestor of the domestic apple, still grows in the wild.
In cooking, apples are eaten fresh, baked (with honey, cinnamon, nuts, cottage cheese), dried, pickled, fermented, marinated, and preserved. They are used to make jam, conserve, marmalade, fruit paste, marshmallow, syrup, juice, compote, jelly, fruit drink, vinegar, kvass, cider, and wine. Apples are added to salads (fruit, vegetable, meat), pies (charlotte, apple pie, strudel, tarte Tatin), baked goods (cookies, cakes, muffins, sponge cakes, buns, pancakes, fritters), porridges (rice, oatmeal, semolina), casseroles, puddings, mousses, jellies, sauces (apple, sweet and sour, meat sauces), and fillings (for pancakes, dumplings, pelmeni, chicken, duck). Apples pair well with cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, lemon, orange, nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews), raisins, dried apricots, prunes, honey, sugar, cottage cheese, cheese, and meat (pork, duck, chicken, goose).
Apples are rich in vitamins (C, A, E, K, B vitamins), folic acid, carotene, flavonoids, pectins, organic acids (malic, citric, tartaric, chlorogenic), fiber, and minerals (potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, molybdenum, cobalt). In folk medicine, apples are used as an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, choleretic, diuretic, laxative (especially baked), anti-anemic, tonic, and general tonic remedy for gastritis (with low acidity), colitis, constipation, cholecystitis, hepatitis, atherosclerosis, hypertension, anemia, vitamin deficiency, obesity, liver diseases, kidney diseases, skin conditions, and for strengthening the immune system.