Watermelon PDF Print E-mail
The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus sin. Citrullus vulgaris) is a plant whose fruit is a part  of the cucurbitacea family.
It is a plant that originated in Africa but has had a great historical distribution in Asia. It is an annual climbing plant, dicotyledonic, herbaceous rough, with  trailing stems covered with small round vines and leaves formed by five lobe-shaped , leaves large yellow, unisexual flowers, the feminine ones have a gineceo with three carpels, the masculine ones have 5 stamens, a large fruit, in a gourd like shape, meaty and juice ( more than 90% of the watermelon is water, with numerous seeds, almost spherical green coloured, pink or red coloured pulp, generally of sweet taste (rarely yellow and bitter) much admired for its refreshing quality and water and mineral content. It is important in weight loss diets as it is low in calories.  The seeds are rich in vitamin E, are used in popular medicine and are also consumed toasted as a food and raw in a Mexican water based drink. They begin to bloom along the Mediterranean coast between June and July and mature 40 days after blooming.
Watermelon was introduced in Spain by the Arabs and presently they are cultivated through the peninsula, mainly in Andalusia and the levante coast. Its etymology reflects the aforesaid origin. It comes from the Hispanic Arab word saníyya. In classical Arabic it is called sindiyyah, from the Sind region of Pakistan. It characteristic red colour is derived from the antioxidant licopene.

WatermelonNumerical values


Andalusia makes up 60% of the watermelon production and has in Almeria its maximum producer, with 316,000 tons in 2006. This product has been strengthening its productions in other Andalusian zones and provinces such as Cordoba, with 24,000 tons; Sevilla with more than 34,000 tons; Cadiz with 16,000 tons or Granada with 15,000 tons.
The Andalusian watermelon is a spring / summer product that is produced under-cover in parts of Almeria and Granada and in the open air in the rest of the region.

Andalusia is heterogeneous in its types of variety and takes in the 5 types of reference watermelon mentioned, with the seedless varieties gaining favour and an equal demand between the striped and the dark types.

Nutritional values


Watermelon is water and this quality contributes to the fact that this fruit and rapidly rehydrate the organism in cases of heat exhaustion. It has moderate vitamin content and its only mineral is potassium.
Another strong point is that it is a red fruit and contains licopene, although in this case along with cancer, prevention qualities it also helps to protect against cellular ageing.
 
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