Interesting facts about Apricots

February 5, 2010 | In: Food facts

In Latin, apricot means “precious” .
Greek mythology experts believe apricots are the “golden apples” of Hesperides — the fruit Hercules was ordered to pick in the eleventh of his twelve labors.

Apricots originally came from China. This golden fruit has been around for more than 4,000 years.

About 95 percent of the apricots grown in the U.S. come from California.

The fruit, ranging in a size between 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm in diameter, has high fiber content very low calorie content.

Dreaming of apricots, in English folklore, is said to be good luck.

The first commercially produced apricots were grown south of San Francisco in 1792.

In one ounce apricots contain enough beta carotene to supply 20 percent of your daily vitamin A requirements. Due to their high fiber to volume ratio, dried apricots are sometimes used to relieve constipation or induce diarrhea. Effects can be felt after eating as few as three.

Dried apricots are an excellent source of potassium, as well as a good source of iron, Vitamin C and calcium.

In Europe, apricots were long considered an aphrodisiac, and were used in this context in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and as an inducer of childbirth, as depicted in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.