Among southern vegetables, eggplants occupy a special place. What are the health benefits and harms? Let's find out more. What is their feature? Eggplant is salted, stewed, baked, dried, fried, boiled, but almost never eaten raw. Many varieties have very bitter fruits due to the large amount of solanine. So are they good or bad for our health? What are the beneficial properties of eggplant?
Solanine in eggplant than dangerous
Eggplant solanine in its properties differ from potato solanine and other nightshade. Therefore, the letter M is assigned to him. In a concentrated form, solanine M is a potent poison.
A connection was established between the presence of solanine and the color of the pulp of the fruit. In varieties of eggplant with a pure white color of pulp that does not change for some time after cutting the fruit, solanine M is absent. There is solanine M in varieties with green flesh, browning after cutting.
An increase in the amount of solanine in the fruits is facilitated by hot weather with a lack of moisture. The concentration of this substance in the phase of biological ripeness increases, which negatively affects the human body, sometimes even causes poisoning. Therefore, eggplant is used only in the phase of technical ripeness, when the concentration of solanine is low and cannot harm the body.
In the phase of technical ripeness, the fruits have a bright juicy shiny color - these are young vegetables, and in the phase of biological maturity - the fruits turn slightly brown, yellow, the luster dulls - these are old. Therefore, speaking of old fruits, one should think not about beneficial properties, but about health hazards, since old eggplants contain much more solanin than young ones.
Useful properties of eggplant
Useful properties include the fact that the use of eggplant significantly (up to 50%) lowers cholesterol in the blood, reduces its deposits on the inner walls of blood vessels. Powder from dried fruits also has this beneficial property. It was thanks to these properties that wild eggplant was first known as a medicinal plant.
Eggplants are not rich in nutrients, but have high palatability. Their benefit is the presence of a variety of trace elements: copper, iron, sulfur, manganese. The content of ascorbic acid in fruits is negligible. In addition, it quickly collapses when cutting fruits. Eggplant contains many vitamins of the P-active group, surpassing most vegetables in these indicators.
When used correctly, they provide many benefits to our health, including cancer prevention, as they have antibacterial, antiviral properties.
Recent studies by Japanese scientists have shown that eggplants have the property of detoxification - they remove drugs and other harmful substances from the human body.
This healthy vegetable contains a lot of fiber, which will benefit people who want to lose weight.
The fruits are diverse in shape, size. There are 1-25 of them on one plant. Eggplants from spherical and shortened pear-shaped to cylindrical and serpentine are found. Their weight ranges from 30 grams to 2 kilograms. The fruits also differ in color: from light purple and almost black to brown, gray and almost white.
Fruits with dense pulp retain their shape better when toasting sliced circles, in general they give more tasty products during processing. less vegetable oil is used for their preparation. Round fruits often have a denser pulp.
Various dishes are prepared from eggplant: fried in slices, caviar, stuffed, canned, salted, pickled.
Few people know that a delicious dish is baked eggplant. Cut the fruits into pieces, mix with tomatoes, onions, stew with vegetable oil. Then add layer by layer with boiled potatoes, sprinkle with parsley, grated cheese, bake. The taste of this dish is amazing!
Eggplants are now available all year, but their beneficial properties are fully manifested precisely in the season - from August to October.