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Sapota (Chikoo): Health Benefits, Skin & Hair Uses | Nutritional Powerhouse

The name ‘sapota’ might not be familiar to most of us. Sapota is another name for the fruit better known as ‘chikoo’ or ‘chiku’ in Hindi, ‘sapota’ in Telugu, ‘chikku‘ in Marathi, ‘cappotta‘ in Tamil and ‘sapeta’ in Bengali. When we say sapota, we are basically referring to the tropical evergreen tree that bears this fruit. Sapota is a delicious calorie-rich fruit belonging to the category of fruits like mango, banana and jack fruit. Its other names are nose berry, sapodilla plum, chickoo sapote etc.

Coming to the point, sapota offers numerous benefits for skin, hair, and health – something we have covered extensively in this post. Keep reading to know more.

Sapota – An Overview

The sapota fruit has its origin in the rain forests of Central America, particularly in Mexico and Belize but it is easily available in India. The fruit is a round or oval-shaped berry measuring around 10 centimeters in diameter and weighing 150 grams. It has 2-5 big, black, shiny bean-like seeds in the centre. The unripe fruit has a hard surface and white pulp due to its high content of latex. The latex content reduces as the fruit ripens and its flesh acquires a brown color. It has a smooth and grainy texture with a sweet and musky flavor. It is rich in calories and its sweet flavor can be attributed to the presence of simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that replenish energy and revitalize the body.

Skin Benefits Of Chikoo/Sapota:

The wide array of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in the sapota fruit makes it an amazing choice for healthy and glowing skin. Thus, this article will be incomplete without talking about the skin benefits of this tasty fruit.

  1. Sapota fruit helps to make your skin glowing, thus reducing your requirement of skin care products to enhance your natural skin texture and complexion. The Vitamin E in this fruit moisturizes your skin, thus giving you healthy and beautiful skin. Hence, eating sapota fruit is good for the skin.
  1. Sapota fruit is rich in antioxidants. Therefore, it acts as an anti-ageing agent by eradicating free radicals in the body which are responsible for enhancing the ageing process. It is also effective in reducing wrinkles.
  1. The seed kernel oil of sapota is used as a skin ointment. The residue of this seed, after the extraction of oil, can be applied as a poultice on painful skin afflictions.
  1. The milky sap of the sapota plant can be used to remove warts and fungal growth on the skin.

  1. The combination of Vitamin A and C beautifies the skin by imparting it with a healthy glow.

Hair Benefits Of Chikoo/Sapota:

As we all know, proper supply of nutrients to our body and proper absorption of these nutrients is inevitable for maintaining good hair health. Hair problems are a result of exposure to harmful chemicals, unhealthy lifestyle and inadequacy of certain essential nutrients in our diet. Being loaded with essential nutrients, sapota has enough to contribute towards healthy hair.

The benefits of sapota for hair are as follows:

  1. Oil extracted from sapota seeds helps in moisturizing and softening your hair, thus making it more manageable. It imparts sheen and is considered excellent for curly hair. It gets absorbed easily without leaving a greasy residue.
  1. The sapota seed oil nourishes the scalp by alleviating irritated skin conditions and promotes healthy hair growth. This oil is considered to be effective in treating hair-fall caused by seborrheic dermatitis.
  1. The seeds of sapota can be grounded to make a paste and mixed with castor oil. This mixture should be applied on scalp and washed off the next day. This makes your hair smooth and the problem of dandruff can also be controlled.

Health Benefits Of Chickoo/Sapota:

Sapota is one of those fruits which are great for health besides being extremely delicious, thanks to the wide array of nutrients contained in this fruit. The tasty flesh of this fruit is easily digestible and replenishes our body by providing energy due to its high content of glucose. As already said, this fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and tannins. Due its sugary taste, it is widely used in shakes. The various health benefits of sapota are given below:

9. Good For The Eyes:

Sapota contains a high amount of Vitamin A. According to research, Vitamin A helps in improving vision even during old age. Thus, in order to get or maintain good vision, you must try eating sapota fruit.

10. Source Of Energy:

Sapota is rich in glucose which provides instant energy to the body. Athletes require loads of energy and hence, are recommended to eat sapota fruit.

11. Anti-Inflammatory Agent:

The high content of tannins makes sapota or chikoo an important anti-inflammatory agent. In other words, it helps in improving the condition of the digestive tract through prevention of diseases like esophagitis, enteritis, irritable bowel syndrome and gastritis. It also reduces inflammation by reducing any swelling and pain.

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