Passion Fruit

Two main varieties of passion fruit are purple passion fruit and yellow passion fruit. The bright yellow variety of passion fruit, which is also known as the Golden Passionfruit, can grow up to the size of a grapefruit, has a smooth, glossy, light and airy rind. The dark purple passion fruit is smaller than a lemon, with a dry, wrinkled rind when ripen.

The passion fruit is round to oval, yellow or dark purple when ripen, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds. The fruit 1 to 3 inches wide, has a tough rind that is smooth and waxy. Within is a cavity more or less filled with an aromatic mass of double walled, membranous sacs containing orange-colored, pulpy juice and as many as 250 small, hard, dark brown or black, pitted seeds. The unique flavor is appealing, musky, guava-like and sweet-tart to tart. The yellow passion fruit has generally larger fruit than the purple, but the pulp of the purple is less acid, richer in aroma and flavor, and has a higher proportion of juice.

The juice but mainly the leaves of passion fruit contain the alkaloids, including Harman, which has blood pressure lowering, sedative and antispasmodic action. The yellow passion fruit has somewhat less ascorbic acid than the purple but is richer in total acid (mainly citric) and in carotene content. It is an excellent source of niacin and a good source of riboflavin. Purple passion fruit contain free amino acids such as arginine, aspartic acid, glycine, leucine, lysine, proline, threonine, tyrosine and valine.