Orange peel, raw

Fun Facts

1. Fruit peel is either firmly adherent to its underlying flesh as in berries, and apples or rather loosely, as in oranges, banana…etc. Its thickness varies widely, even in the same family fruits, ranging from paper thin to very thick shell-like as in mangosteen.
2. In some raw fruits, the peel has neutral flavor, as in grapes and apples. It can be bitter and inedible because of high tannin (astringent) content in unripe sapodilla and proteolytic enzymes in papaya. As the fruit ripens, the peel becomes easily separable from the pulp (bananas). In addition, its components turn sweeter and become pleasant-tasting as in sapodilla, guava, kiwifruit, and kumquat.
3. Fruit ripening is purely an enzymatic process, which brings certain characteristic changes to the fruit color, aroma, taste, maturity (hardening) of seeds…etc.
4. The peel in some fruits like guava is firmly cohesive to its pulp and, indeed, in some fruits it turns tastier than the flesh as the fruit ripens.