Persimmon

Do you know what a Persimmon is? When I first heard it, I find it weird. I was really clueless about it. Then I searched it on the net and I was amazed when I found out that it is actually some kind of fruit. A Persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family. The word persimmon is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, (from Powhatan, an Algonquian Cree and Mohican) of the eastern United States, meaning “a dry fruit”. Persimmons are generally light yellow-orange to dark red-orange in color, and depending on the species, vary in size from 1.5-9 cm (0.5-4 in) diameter, and may be spherical, acorn, or pumpkin-shaped. Here’s what it looks like: Click here to Open ▼

Besides from being a fruit, Persimmons are also used in medicine and furniture making too. In medicine, unripened persimmons contain the soluble tannin shibuol, which, upon contact with a weak acid, polymerizes in the stomach and forms a gluey coagulum that can affix with other stomach matter. And when it comes to furniture making, Persimmon trees are used as a wood for paneling in traditional Korean and Japanese furniture.