One of the most attractive things about the soursop tree, which has a scientific name of Annona muricata, is that people love the taste of its fruit. Most people have described this as a citrus taste that is close to a combination of strawberry and pineapple. Soursop is very popular as a garden fruit in Mexico, the Caribbean, parts of South America, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and in Florida. Many people eat it as a fruit, but they also use the pulp and fiber for drinks, desserts, and candy. Here are some additional health benefits of soursop.

Controls Parasites

In some places where soursop is popular, people are prone to parasitic infections. These places tend to be rural or undeveloped. In developed areas, parasitic infections can happen in travelers and immigrants with weakened immune systems. In the United States, common parasitic conditions include pinworms, the protozoa that create the sexually transmitted disease trichomoniasis, toxoplasmosis, usually caused by contact with cat feces or contaminated food, and gastrointestinal infections like giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis. Typically, the treatment for parasitic infections involves soursop tea. You can brew the tea using the leaves of soursop. Add two whole leaves to water and let them simmer for at least 10 minutes. Remove the leaves from the brew before serving. The short brewing time gives you enough flavor and soursop concentration to cleanse your gut and restore your gastrointestinal system to optimal function.

Relieves Respiratory Distress

Soursop has expectorant properties that help the body eliminate phlegm and mucus. For cold sufferers and those with other respiratory ailments, this means clearer airways, less congestion, and diminished irritation. Many pathogens live in the nasal cavities and respiratory tract, so making sure they are clear is a great way to reduce inflammation, promote healing and prevent the onset of other ailments, too.

Pain Management

There are a couple of ways that doctors and alternative medicine professionals treat pain. They use a topical ointment or other application to treat wounds and injuries externally. However, they can also choose remedies that treat pain internally. The anti-inflammatory and calming agent, soursop is an ideal pain management solution for people with all kinds of body pains. Healers have used the leaves topically, but they have also used teas to promote internal healing to stop the pain, as well.

Relieves Insomnia

One of the common reasons that many people do not get proper sleep is because they are stressing about things happening in their daily lives. The hormones that are released in the body when there is stress can alter natural sleep cycles, shift you to a different schedule and become harmful to your other systems. Soursop tea, also called Graviola tea, helps relieve some of that stress and anxiety. It is considered a natural, soothing remedy for sleep troubles.

Healthier Skin

There have been so many approaches to better skin care, especially those that involve natural remedies. Of course, the first one that most people stand by is to drink lots of water daily. However, soursop plays a role in clear, healthy-looking skin, as well, reducing lines and wrinkles and diminishing blemishes and age spots. To apply soursop to the skin, it is important to crush the seeds of the fruit into a powder. A spice grinder is good for getting the desired form. Use the power to make a paste and apply it to the skin. In addition to clearing up spots, it will also protect you from bacteria and infections.

Immune System Boost

Although many people do not make the connection, a healthy immune system begins with a good diet and fitness routine. During cold and flu season, this is especially important. Because soursop is rich in vitamin C and stimulates the production of white blood cells, it is effective when added to the diet. Most people usually add the fruit to beverages or desserts to start getting the immunity boost they need. There is a concentration of antioxidants in soursop that also helps to fight chronic disease and guard against free radicals, as well.

Anti-inflammatory Properties

Many anti-inflammatory problems are expressed in chronic conditions like arthritis, gout or other diseases that cause the joints to be achy and swollen. Typically, people create a soursop decoction, which is made by taking the liquor that comes from boiled soursop leaves and rubbing it the pain-affected area. Soursop’s anti-inflammatory compounds remove pain and improve flexibility.

Believed to Assist in Fighting Cancer

There have been many debates about soursop’s ability to truly fight cancer. However, its antioxidant properties have been directly linked to cancer prevention and have been known to shrink tumors. In studies done on the effectiveness of soursop, acetogenins can cut off blood flow to abnormal cellular growths. Some studies have used soursop derivatives to treat prostate, lung and breast cancer.

Improves Gastrointestinal Health

The rich vitamin C found in soursop has been used for centuries to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Scurvy, for example, which causes people to have swollen, bleeding gums. It also makes it almost impossible for wounds to heal completely, is caused by a lack of vitamin C and malnutrition. Sailors, who were known to be adversely affected by this disease until the end of the 18th century, were sometimes cured with soursop. To create a remedy, people often use the fruit of soursop to make a juice. The diuretic properties of the juice clean out the gastrointestinal tract and take away toxins and salt that is harming the body’s systems. Soursop also helps reduce pain in the gut and stomach and colon irritations.

Antioxidant That May Help Fight Eye Disease

As an antioxidant, soursop has phytonutrients like alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, coumarins, cardiac glycosides, phytosterols, phenols and other compounds that block disease-causing cells in the body and prevent tumors. Some of these compounds are effective in fighting eye disease. In a National Eye Institute study that tested for age-related eye disease, antioxidants reduced macular degeneration by 25 percent in those who already had the disease. The antioxidants found in soursop make this a promising way to focus on eye disease prevention.