10 Rarest Fruits In The World

1. Ackee

Ackee is a rare and strange looking fruit that grows in the tropical regions of Western Africa. It is also the national fruit of Jamaica. The brain like shape is the main attraction of this fruit.The inner part of ackee contains soft white to yellow flesh with black seeds.

In African countries, people like to eat ackee with vegetable dishes. This fruit can also eat in raw form. Ackee is completely free from cholesterols and other unwanted fatty acids. But its seed contains poisonous hypoflycin. That is why the U.S food and drug administration banned the importation of ackee fruit to the country.

The ackee, also known as achee, ackee apple or ayee is a member of the Sapindaceae, as are the lychee and the longan. It is native to tropical West Africa in Cameroon, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. In Yorùbá it is known as íṣin.

The scientific name honours Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. The common name is derived from the West African Akan akye fufo.

The fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa before 1778. Since then it has become a major feature of various Caribbean cuisines, and is also cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas elsewhere around the world.