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Ripens before apricots and peaches; skin peels with a thumb; seeds aren't eaten; good source of vitamin A.
The first tree fruit of the year in much of Iran: thin skin, juicy flesh, big seeds to spit out.
Known to botanists as Eriobotrya japonica.
Loquat fills the gap between winter citrus and summer stone fruit. It bruises easily, so eating it's almost always local and seasonal.
Soft, easy to chew, low in sugar and rich in carotenoids (the orange and yellow plant pigments your body can use) for eye and skin health — a gentle fruit for older adults, arriving at exactly the point in the year when little else is ripe.
Strong in carotenoids, which become vitamin A.
Water and pectin (a soft fibre in fruit that thickens jam), so it fills for few calories.
A small oval fruit with soft orange skin, juicy orange flesh and two to four big brown seeds. It grows in loose clusters on a small evergreen tree with long, leathery, dark green leaves. The tree flowers in autumn and ripens its fruit in spring, which is why loquat arrives before almost everything else.
Family: Rosaceae (rose family).
Persian temperament: Cool & Moist (1st degree). Sweet-sour and moistening. Traditionally given for a dry throat and a dry cough rather than for heat alone.
Persian medicine reads loquat as cool and moist, useful for a hot, dry cough and for a heated stomach. Chinese medicine uses the leaf, not the fruit, in cough syrups — a separate preparation that should not be confused with eating the fruit.
Loquat leaf syrup is an East Asian cough preparation made from the leaf — not from the fruit.
In Gilan and Mazandaran the azgil-e zhaponi tree is a garden fixture, and its brief season is a marker of spring. Children eat them straight off the branch, seeds and all going over the wall.
Primary compounds
Beta-carotene; chlorogenic acid.
Vitamins
Vitamin C, Folate
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Potassium, Manganese, Magnesium · Antioxidants: Ursolic acid
What studies in people show
Eriobotrya japonica seeds and leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides and should not be eaten.Strong evidence
Loquat fruit provides carotenoids, potassium and dietary fibre in compositional analyses.Strong evidence
Choose deep orange fruit that gives slightly; green ones never sweeten.
Peel with your fingers, halve, and lift the seeds out.
Eat within a day or two; they brown quickly.
In the kitchen: fresh, peeled, eaten by hand. Stewed into a light compote or jam with lemon. Sliced over yogurt with a little honey; stew briefly with a little sugar into a spring compote.
Slice into a fruit salad with strawberry and mint.
Honey
The classic loquat throat syrup is nothing more than cooked fruit and honey. And it's worth making once.
Yogurt
Peeled and sliced over yogurt, loquat tastes somewhere between apricot and pear.
Cardamom
A pinch in the poaching liquid gives the fruit an aroma it doesn't have on its own.
Almonds
Chopped almonds against soft poached loquat is the standard Persian move with any stone fruit.
Bruised or brown loquats ferment fast — eat them fresh.
The fruit isn't a treatment for any cough or lung condition; see a doctor for a cough that lasts.
The seeds and the leaves contain cyanide-forming compounds. Never crush, blend or eat the seeds, and don't make tea from raw leaves at home.
Loquat leaf preparations aren't the same as the fruit; treat any claim about the leaf separately.
Diabetes medicine — Loquat leaf extracts have been studied for blood sugar and may add to the effect of glucose-lowering medicine. The fruit itself is ordinary food. (moderate concern)
Sedatives — Loquat leaf syrups sold for cough are sometimes combined with sedating herbs. Read the label of a bought syrup rather than assuming it's only fruit. (low concern)
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
The fruit is fine. Loquat leaf preparations are a different product entirely and have not been studied in pregnancy, so avoid those.
Children
Children eat loquat happily, but the seeds are large, slippery and contain cyanide-forming compounds. Deseed every piece before it reaches a small child.
Older adults
Soft, easy to chew, and mildly moistening for a dry mouth or a dry cough. Poached, it's one of the gentler fruits on a tired digestion.
Spring
This is the loquat's moment, and it's the reason people plant the tree. The fruit comes early, before almost anything else.
Summer
Already finished in most places. Late trees in cooler gardens carry on into early summer.
Autumn
Nothing. The tree flowers now, oddly, and holds the flowers through cold weather.
Winter
Flowers on bare-ish branches in the middle of winter, which is why the fruit arrives so early.
Is it related to medlar?
Only distantly is the Persian name is shared, but they are different fruits and different seasons.
Why are they never in shops?
They bruise within a day or two, so they stay close to where they grow.
End of the Loquat guide