A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis, which can be eaten fresh as table grapes or they can be used for making wine, jam, juice, jelly, grape seed extract, raisins, vinegar, and grape seed oil.
Grapes are a non-climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of the domesticated grape began 6,000–8,000 years ago in the Near East. In North America, native grapes belonging to various species of the Vitis genus proliferate in the wild across the continent, and were a part of the diet of many Native Americans.
Grapes are a type of fruit that grow in clusters of 15 to 300, and can be crimson, black, dark blue, yellow, green, orange, and pink. "White" grapes are actually green in color, and are evolutionarily derived from the purple grape. Mutations in two regulatory genes of white grapes turn off production of anthocyanins, which are responsible for the color of purple grapes. Anthocyanins and other pigment chemicals of the larger family of polyphenols in purple grapes are responsible for the varying shades of purple in red wines. Grapes are typically an ellipsoid shape resembling a prolate spheroid.
Health Benefits of Grapes
1 Grapes are rich in polyphenolic phytochemical compound resveratrol. Resveratrol is one of the powerful anti-oxidant which has been found to play a protective role against cancers of colon and prostate, coronary heart disease (CHD), degenerative nerve disease, Alzheimer's disease and viral/ fungal infections.
2 Resveratrolreduces stroke risk by altering the molecular mechanisms inside the blood vessels. It does so, firstly by reducing the susceptibility of the blood vessel through decreased activity of angiotensin (a systemic hormone causing blood vessel constriction that would otherwise elevate blood pressure) and secondly, through increased production of vasodilator substance, nitric oxide (a beneficial compound that causes relaxation of blood vessels).
3 Anthocyanins are another class of polyphenolic antioxidants present abundantly in the red grapes. These phytochemicals have been found to have an anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, as well as anti-cancer activity.
4 Catechins, a type of flavonoid tannin group of anti-oxidants, discovered in the white/green varieties have also shown to possess these health-protective functions.
5 Also, the berries are very low in calories. 100 g fresh grapes just provide 69 calories but zero cholesterol levels.
6 Grapes are a rich source of micronutrient minerals like copper, iron, and manganese. Copper and manganese are an essential cofactor of the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is especially concentrated in raisins. Besides, 100 g of fresh grapes contain about 191 mg of health benefiting electrolyte, potassium.
7 They are an also good source of vitamin-C, vitamin-A, vitamin-K, carotenes, B-complex vitamins such as pyridoxine, riboflavin, and thiamin.
Life-cycle of grapes
The life cycle of grape is 3-5 days immediately after harvesting. So there is high risk of postharvest loss in grape. The need for proper storage and preservation come to play, that is where ColdHubs comes in. From our research we discovered that when grape are refrigerate it will prolong the life shelf to 5 – 10 days and when put in freezer in extends its life shelf to 3-5 months.
The need of storing grapes in ColdHubs
Storing grape(berries) in ColdHubs extends the life shelf to 3-5 months just as that of the freezer, our 24 hours 7 days non-stop solar cold-room helps the grape to retain all necessary nutrient and preserving it 100% gives traders hope of not losing any of their grape to postharvest loss. Our operators will charge just N100(One hundred Nigeria Naria equivalent to $0.5)per day to save traders from great loss and also increase their profits.
Coldhubs should be encouraged in every market place and farm cluster to save human consumption.