Annona muricata
(soursop)

Preferred Common Name

• soursop

Other Scientific Names

• Annona macrocarpa Barb. Rodr.
• Annona muricata L. f. mirabilis R.E. Fr.
• Annona muricata L. var. borinquensis Morales

International Common Names

• English: graviola; prickly custard apple
• Spanish: anona; guanabana; guanábana; guanábano; sapote agrio
• French: anone; anone muriquee; cacheimantier èpineux; cachiman; cachiman èpineux; corossol; corossol épineux; corossolier; grand corossol

Local Common Names

• Bolivia: sinini
• Brazil: araticum; araticum-de-comer; araticum-do-Grande; araticum-manso; areticum; ata-coraçao-de-rainha; condessa; coraçao-de-rainha; graviola; graviola-do-norte; guanabano; jaca; jaca-de-pobre; jaca-do-pará; jaqueira-mole; pinha
• Cambodia: tiep banla; tiep barang
• China: ci guo fan li zhi
• Cook Islands: katara‘apa; naponapo taratara
• Fiji: sarifa; seremaia
• French Polynesia: korosor; tapotapo papa‘a; tapotapo urupe
• French Polynesia/Marquesas: koroso
• Germany: Annone, Stachel-; Sauerapfelbaum; Sauersackbaum; Sauersak
• Guam: laguana; laguanaba; laguanaha
• Indonesia: nangka seberang; sirsak; zuurzak
• Indonesia/Java: nangka belanda
• Italy: annona moricata; annona spinosa; casimentaria; pomo di canella
• Japan: reishi; togeban
• Laos: khan thalot; khièp thét
• Malaysia: durian belanda; durian blanda; durian maki; durian makkah; seri kaya belanda
• Marshall Islands: jojaab; sauer sharp
• Mexico: cabeza de negro; caduts-at; catuche; catucho; llama de tehuantepec; polvox; tak-ob; xunapill; zopote de viejas
• Micronesia, Federated states of: saasaf; saasap
• Myanmar: duyin-awza
• Nauru: dawatsip
• Netherlands: zuurzak; zuurzakboom
• New Zealand: sasalapa
• Niue: talapo fotofoto
• Northern Mariana Islands: laguana; laguanaha; syasyap
• Palau: sausab
• Papua New Guinea: saua sap
• Philippines: atti; babana; bayubana; guayabano; guiabano; guyabana; gwabana; labanus; llabanos
• Sierra Leone: soursapi
• Thailand: rian-nam; thu-rian-khack; thurian-khaek; thurian-thet
• Vietnam: mang cân xiem; mang cau xiem

EPPO code

• ANUMU (Annona muricata)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Annonales
•                         Family: Annonaceae
•                             Genus: Annona
•                                 Species: Annona muricata

The genus Annona, commonly known as the custard-apple genus, consists of about 125 species with some species widely cultivated for their edible fruits and often becoming naturalized beyond their native range of tropical America and Africa (Wagner et al., 2014a). The genus name Annona could be derived from the Latin ‘anon’, meaning ‘yearly produce’, referring to “the fruit production habits of the various species in this genus” (Orwa et al., 2009), or, according to Britton and Wilson (1924), from ‘Hanon’, “an aboriginal name for the tree in tropical America, probably Santo Domingo”. The species name ‘muricata’ refers to the soft spinules on the fruit’s exterior that have also led to some vernacular names, like ‘prickly custard apple’ (Quattrocchi, 2012). The common name soursop refers to the slightly acidic taste of the ripe fruit.

Vellozo described a species with the name A. muricata in 1827, but that species was soon after renamed A. montana by Macfadyen in his Flora of Jamaica in 1837. 

Wagner et al. (2014a, b) give the following description: Small tree 7.5-9 m tall, new growth puberulent with reddish brown hairs. Leaves distichous, petiolate, blade narrowly obovate, narrowly elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 6.5-20 cm long, 2.5-6.5 cm wide, base acute to rounded, apex acuminate, shiny and glabrous above, strigillose along costa and secondary veins beneath, with barbate domatia in secondary vein axils, secondary veins 8-12 pairs, petioles thick, 5-8 mm long. Inflorescences cauliflorous or ramiferous, sometimes in fascicles on knobby outgrowths of trunk, or solitary and leaf-opposed, pedicels stout, 15-20 mm long, 2-2.5 mm in diameter, obconical, rusty puberulent, bracteolate; sepals 3, valvate, broadly triangular, 3-4 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, thick, apex acute, puberulent externally, petals thick, fleshy, glabrous, greenish-yellow to yellow, 3 outer petals 30 mm long, 22 mm wide, ovate, base cordate, apex acuminate, 3 inner petals 20-22 mm long, 10-15 mm wide, elliptic, cucullate, base acute to attenuate, apex obtuse; stamens numerous, 4 mm long, 1 mm in diam., clavate with thickened apex; ovary ca. 5 mm long, 8 mm wide, broadly conical, carpels densely velutinous. Fruit a large, fleshy syncarp to 30 cm long, 15 cm long, ovoid to oblong, often somewhat curved, when fresh green without, the surface bearing regularly well-spaced, soft, conical, curved spines 2-3 mm long, the flesh white, juicy and with cotton-like fibers, surrounding the numerous seeds. Seeds light to dark brown, 13-17 mm long, 9-10 mm wide, ellipsoid, compressed, with low marginal ridge; endosperm ruminate. 

This small, evergreen tree may be slender and upright or low branching and bushy; it often becomes straggly and untidy with age. The dark green leaves emit a strong odour when crushed. The flowers, which have a peculiar smell, are hermaphrodite and are often produced singly or in small clusters on old wood. Normal fruits are generally heart-shaped to oval, but if there is poor pollination, unfertilized ovules fail to develop and the resulting fruit assumes distorted irregular shapes and is usually undersized. The dark green skin has many recurved, soft spines 0.5-1.3 cm apart. There is often a constriction like a fault on the side of the fruit, where the skin has not swollen and the spines are much closer together. The fruit stalk is about 3-8 cm long and woody. The ripe pulp, which adheres to the skin but is easily separated into segments (which were the separate ovaries), has an agreeable subacid flavour with a distinct aroma (Janick and Paull, 2008).

A. muricata is of tropical American origin (PIER, 2014; Wagner et al., 2014a), and it is probably native to Central America and northern South America (Hanelt et al., 2001; Acevedo-Rodriguez and Strong, 2012). Archaeological evidence indicates both A. muricata and A. cherimola were present in pre-Hispanic Peru rather than an introduction by Spaniards, as was thought by 17^th-century records (Bonavia et al., 2004). It was one of the first fruit trees carried from America to the Old World Tropics (Morton, 1987). Both A. cherimola and A. muricata were introduced to Asia by way of the Spanish galleon trade at an early date, and A. muricata is now widely cultivated across the Asia Pacific region for its edible fruit (Koesriharti, 1991; PIER, 2014).

Date of introduction of A. muricata to the West Indies and Caribbean region is uncertain, but it was observed growing in Jamaica in the early 16^th century by Sir Hans Sloane, who collected a specimen that is now in the Sloane herbarium of the UK Natural History Museum in London (specimen BM000594141). Morton (1987) states that Oviedo described the fruit as abundant in the West Indies and in northern South America in 1526. The species has been present in Puerto Rico since before the 1880’s, as it was included in both Bello’s (1883) and Britton and Wilson’s (1924) works on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It has been grown in Florida since probably the 1870s (Morton, 1987).

Category	Sub-Category	Habitat	Presence	Status
Terrestrial
Terrestrial	Managed	Cultivated / agricultural land	Present, no further details	Productive/non-natural
Terrestrial	Managed	Disturbed areas	Present, no further details	Productive/non-natural
Terrestrial	Natural / Semi-natural	Natural forests	Present, no further details	Natural
Terrestrial	Natural / Semi-natural	Natural forests	Present, no further details	Productive/non-natural
Littoral		Coastal areas	Present, no further details	Natural
Littoral		Coastal areas	Present, no further details	Productive/non-natural

Bimodal
Uniform

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Natural Dispersal

The species’ seeds are contained within large fruits sometimes weighing up to 4.5 kg (Flora of Pakistan, 2014) or even 5 kg (Brown, 1950), making its dispersal by wind or water unlikely. Its trademark spinules are also unlikely to function as burrs to attach to animals, considering the weight of the fruit. 

Vector Transmission (Biotic)

Fruits are edible and commonly eaten by humans, animals including “horses, cows, hogs, and indeed every description of stock are fond of it” (Macfadyen, 1837), as well as bats (Koesriharti, 1991), all of which may serve to disperse the species’ seeds.

Accidental Introduction

The species is known to have escaped from cultivation and be accidentally introduced to non-native environments (Randall, 2012).

Intentional Introduction

A. muricata was one of the first plants to be introduced from the New World to the Old Tropics as a crop plant and is now widely cultivated across humid tropical regions of the world for its edible fruit.

Although known to be an agricultural weed in some places (Randall, 2012), the species would also have a positive impact on local livelihoods by providing large, edible fruits for foraging and feeding to livestock. 

A. muricata has been reported as a cultivation escape and agricultural weed in some places (Randall, 2012) and occasionally adventive or sparingly naturalized in parts of French Polynesia (Wagner and Lorence, 2014), but is not reported to be problematic in most places. It currently has a low risk of negatively impacting non-native environments (PIER, 2014).

There is some evidence that A. muricata seeds may negatively affect human health; a 2004 report on Guadeloupe’s atypical Parkinson’s Disease epidemiology found an average of 15 mg of annonacin in each A. muricata fruit, and estimated that an adult who consumed one fruit or can of nectar a day would ingest in one year the amount of annonacin found to induce brain lesions in rats that received purified annonacin via intravenous infusion (Lannuzel et al., 2006; Badrie and Schauss, 2010). Further research on this, especially considering its widespread cultivation and consumption, is warranted.

Invasiveness

• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Tolerant of shade
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year
• Reproduces asexually

Impact outcomes

• Negatively impacts agriculture
• Negatively impacts human health

Impact mechanisms

• Produces spines, thorns or burrs

Likelihood of entry/control

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

A. muricata is most commonly known for its edible fruits. Macfadyen’s flora of Jamaica (1837) describes how the species’ fruit could be “eaten plain, or mixed with sugar and water, to which wine and nutmeg are sometimes added. Horses, cows, hogs, and indeed every description of stock are fond of it”. The fruit pulp is used for making sherbets, ice cream, jellies, and other desserts, as well as a drink as in Java, Cuba, and parts of America (Brown, 1950; Koesriharti, 1991; Flora of Pakistan, 2014). In Indonesia the fruit pulp is boiled and mixed with sugar to make sweetcake ('dodol sirsak'), and in the Philippines young fruits are eaten as a vegetable (Koesriharti, 1991). The species is difficult to produce for large-scale, global commercial purposes, as “yields are generally low: one or two dozen fruit per tree per year, each fruit weighing more than 1 kg on average” and “Mature, firm fruit ripen 3—5 days after harvest and can be held only 2—3 days thereafter, even if cooled. Thus, harvested fruit should be dispatched to distant markets without delay. Because of their tender skin, fruit should be handled with great care”; “because of erratic yield and short shelf life, production of soursop is too scattered to supply a substantial processing industry. Presumably this is why soursop growing in South-East Asia has not expanded convincingly in recent times” and “international trade is virtually limited to processed products” (Koesriharti, 1991).

In addition to its use as a food crop, the seeds and many of the plant parts of A. muricata are used in traditional medicine (Hanelt et al., 2001; Orwa et al., 2009; USDA-ARS, 2014). Badrie and Schauss (2010) report some of its uses in traditional Indian medicine as well as in Jamaica, Haiti, Brazil, the Peruvian Amazon for the treatment of kidney problems, fever, nervousness, ulcers and wounds, with antispasmodic, antidysenteric, and parasiticidal activity, its leaves for fever, its bark as tonic, roots as antispasmodic and parasiticidal, its flowers as bechic [relieving coughs], unripe fruit as antiscrobutic; and seeds as insecticidal, astringent, and as a fish-poison. The plant is used in Ayurvedic medicine as a bitter, tonic, abortifacient, febrifuge, for scorpion stings, high blood pressure, and as a respiratory stimulant. It has become popular as an alternative remedy for cancer, and while there is so far no evidence to support this from clinical trials, some recent laboratory research suggests that extracts can act against cancer cells (Pieme et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015). Unfortunately, the fruit and seeds also contain annonacin, which has been demonstrated to be toxic in vitro and in vivo to dopaminergic and other neurons, and consumption of the fruit has been associated with an increased risk of developing atypical parkinsonism in humans (Lannuzel et al., 2006; Badrie and Schauss, 2010).

A. muricata has also been used in agriculture as an intercrop species. Koesriharti, (1991) reports that “being a small and early-bearing tree, the soursop may be planted as an intercrop between larger fruit trees such as mango, avocado, and santol. When the main crop requires the space, the soursop trees are grubbed out”.

The seeds of the fruit possess insecticidal properties and have been used for this purpose (Hanelt et al., 2001; Flora of Pakistan, 2014)

Sunarjono H, 1987. Fruit growing [Indonesian]. Sinar Baru. Bandung, Indonesia,191-195.

Lam PF, Zaipun MZ, 1986. Respiration rates, ethylene productions and chemical compositions of different maturity of soursop (Annona muricata L.) at various temperatures. MARDI Research Bulletin (Malaysia), 14(3): 231-235.

Nakasone HY, 1972. Production feasibility for soursop. Hawaii Farm Science, 21(1): 10-11.

Rismunandar, 1983. Development of fruit crops [Indonesian]. Sinar Baru. Bandung, Indonesia, 147-151.

van der Pijl L, 1953. On the flower biology of some plants from Java with general remarks on fly-traps. Annales Bogoriensis, 1: 77-99.

Wijaya, 1988. Plasma nutfah sirsak [Soursop germplasm]. Warta Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pertanian (Departemen Pertanian Republik Indonesia), 10(6): 1-2.