Mature pineapples have a very singular fragrance, a beautiful colour and pleasant bittersweet taste. It is eaten raw or as an ingredient in juices, preserves, liquors, etc. Both the fruit and the leaves are used to prepare medicinal compounds.

The caloric content of pineapples is low, reason why it is suitable for slimming diets. It helps to digest and beneficial for people with gastritis or dyspepsia. It is a slightly laxative fruit and it regularizes the intestinal functions. This fruit activates the pancreatic function. It is rich in manganese, which is hardly found in the rest of fruit.

The tropical or American pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the fruit obtained from the plant with the same name. It has an oval and bulky shape, approximately 30 cm long and 15 cm of diameter.

The edible flesh is surrounded by green bracts that turn into orange when ripe, which form the skin of the fruit. The bracts are clustered in the upper part of the fruit forming a tuft of leaves. Pineapples have yellow or white pulp, fleshy, aromatic, juicy and sweet. In the fruit there is a fibrous axis that extends from the crown to the pedicle.

Mature pineapples have a very singular fragrance, a beautiful colour and pleasant bittersweet taste. It is eaten raw or as an ingredient in juices, preserves, liquors, etc. Both the fruit and the leaves are used to prepare medicinal compounds.

The pineapple is an herbaceous plant whose inflorescences are born in the tip of the fruit. These inflorescences have an oval shape. It is a multiple fruit composed of a clustering of fruits. It is a fleshy fruit ending in a crown of leaves. It propagates by cuttings and it prefers the heat.

Pineapples has a very high content of water. The glucids occupy the second place and the supply of proteins and lipids is scarce. The caloric value, taking the composition into account, is very low. Each 100 g of edible fresh product supply between 64 and 101 kcal. For that reason pineapples are suitable in slimming diets.

The American pineapple is usually eaten fresh, alone or in fruit salads. It is also used in pies and several dishes. Great part of the world-wide production is intended for the processing industry to obtain pineapple in syrup. They are also widely used to obtain juice, as raw material to process stewed fruit and jams. In the Chinese cooking it is a main ingredient combined with pork and duck.

This fruit is very sensitive to sudden changes of temperature. The suitable temperatures for partially mature pineapples are around 10-13ºC and for mature pineapples around 7-10ºC. Thus, the optimal levels of relative moisture are between 85 and 90%.

The pineapple is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches between 1 and 1.2 m high. It forms a short and thick stem, 20-25 cm long; the apex is composed of meristematic tissues that gives rise to the leaves.

The shape and length of the leaves vary according to their position in the plant. The superior leaf is smooth and the inferior one is a longitudinally furrowed leave.

The fruit occurs from a clustered inflorescence with simple fruits that give rise to a complete flower composed of 3 fleshy sepals, 3 petals and 6 stamens.

The pineapple inflorescence bears around 150 flowers of white or violet colour, with a daily blooming of 5 to 10 flowers. The flowers are self-sterile, reason why the egg cells are not completely formed; nevertheless, by crossed pollination it is possible to force fertilization and the formation of rounded, small and very hard seeds.

The root system is small if compared to the aerial part. It forms a dense unit, not very deep and fragile.

The best climate for pineapple culture is the tropical, although it is also well-grown in subtropical climates, provided they are not exposed to frosts.