Pineapple Properties and Health Benefits

The pineapple (Ananas sativus) is the fruit of the ananas plant, belonging to the Bromeliaceae family. Thanks to the presence of bromelain has a decongestant action, as well as being rich in minerals and vitamins.

Pineapple is particularly rich in mineral salts (potassium, manganese) and in vitamins (carotenoids, vitamin A, complex B and vitamin C).

The interesting thing is that vitamin C remains stable even after harvesting, because the fruit protects it from oxidation with its thick peel and its high acidity level. In fact, like citrus fruits, pineapple is also an alkalizing food: it reduces the acid level of our pH, (often caused by incorrect and unbalanced feeding), restoring the basic acid balance and preventing inflammation, the first cause of diseases.

In phytotherapy the stem of the infructescence is used, whose most important component is bromelain, which gives the remedy a decongestant action, which stimulates the drainage of the inflammatory focus and the reabsorption of the hemorrhagic effusion.

For this property it is used in the treatment of inflammatory processes, especially in case of edema, cellulitis, reduced skin tropism, hematoma, post-operative and post-traumatic welling, muscle and joint trauma and venous insufficiency.

Cellulitis, in fact, presents itself as an inflammatory process affecting the lymphatic and microcirculatory system, which causes the transudation of the liquids in the intracellular spaces; if not treated, this process leads to the atrophy of the capillaries and the infiltration of fat into the intercellular spaces, with the formation of cellulitic nodes that can also cause pain. For these reasons, pineapple is one of the natural anti-cellulitis supplements.

Pineapple stalk preparations are nowadays widely used to improve blood and lymphatic circulation because they contain active ingredients with fibrinolytic action which, acting on the blood vessels, reduce vasodilatation and excessive permeability of the capillaries, attenuating localized inflammations or pains.

Bromelain also gives the pineapple an antiplatelet and modulating coagulation property in venous insufficiency with a tendency to clot and thrombus.

The use of the pineapple stem is also effective in case of water retention and obesity thanks to its diuretic action, due to the presence of organic acids, capable of stimulating the elimination of excess fluids, accumulated in the subcutaneous tissue.

Finally, the predominantly proteolytic enzymes contained in the plant give a digestive action aimed mainly at the synthesis of animal proteins (fish, meat), useful in situations of dyspepsia due to gastric and pancreatic enzyme deficiency.

Image courtesy of Kaz https://pixabay.com/en/pineapple-fruit-food-tropical-909097/