Loquat fruits look and taste a bit like apricots.  They are slightly exotic with many health benefits and they are up and coming in the fruit world.

Health Benefits

Loquat fruits taste sweet and sour.  Sweet foods strengthen or increase the body’s resources.  Sour foods astringe, hold in or protect the body’s fluids.  Together, sweet and sour make ‘yin’ or moisture in the body.  In the case of loquat fruits, it is the resource of ‘yin’ or healthy body moisture that is increased.  Sour foods also sometimes affect the flow of energy or ‘qi’ in the body because sour tastes can stimulate digestive and other enzymes.

Loquat fruits have a neutral or balanced energetic temperature effect on the body (not warm or cold).  Their balanced nature makes them easy to use for people who have both hot and cold conditions.

Loquat fruit has the following functions:

1. lubricates dryness (due to sweet and sour flavor)
   -for dry throat, thirst, constipation, general yin deficiency or lack of moisture in the body
2. stops cough (due to sweet and sour flavor)
   -especially dry cough or cough with scanty & sticky sputum
3. harmonizes the stomach (due to sour flavor)
   -nausea, unsettled belly, sluggish metabolism
4. descends rebellious qi (due to sour flavor)
   -this is for lung and digestive energy going upward – cough, hiccups, chronic bronchitis, nausea
5. calms the liver (due to sour flavor)
   -irritability, restlessness

In terms of western nutrition, the loquat is low in saturated fat and sodium, and is high in vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, and manganese.

I just made a delicious loquat chutney with the help of my sister, my kids and several of their friends.  Having a group of 6 of us to peel off the skin and remove the seeds was a blessing because that work of obtaining the fruit is a bit time consuming.  I started with a base of rice vinegar, rock sugar and maple syrup.  Then I added dried mulberry fruits, dried red dates, raisons, sliced apples and a melange of delicious spices (freshly grated orange peel, cardamon, ginger, curry, chili powder, saffron, salt and pepper).  The result was a delicious chutney that stimulates the digestive system, moistens dryness, aid the lung and liver.  Here’s the basic recipe.