Aluguntugui - God’s own sweet and sour gift

Though this is not the case in Ghana, recent happenings such as the popularity of Keche’s song “Aluguntugui” which says that “ life is tasty like aluguntugui”  and some claims of the fruit’s ability to cure and prevent the dreaded cancer disease seem to have brought a considerablespotlight on it.

Aluguntugui  is not as  common as oranges and bananas but it is still available on the market and at  grocery shops. In recent times, it has joined the legion of items hawked along the streets in Accra’s motor traffic.

One of such spots is the traffic lights at the Goldhouse better known as Kawukudi junction.  

Past the Goldhouse, there is a stall near the Zenith Bank which stocks the fruit.

 On the Accra-Koforidua  road in the Eastern Region, the fruit is sold along  the route in large quantities and last week out of curiousity I stopped by the market near the roundabout at Adawso in search of the tree which bears  this fruit.

Abena Fosua, a mango seller, was very ready to lead me to one such on condition that I will buy some aluguntugui. 

The tree, she said, was on the  compound of her friend’s  house some three kilometres away from the road. That was no walking distance to me at all  because I had to see that tree. Abena has a contract with her friend,  Madam Gladys Ayeh, to sell the fruits of the tree anytime it bears. She visits  the tree  regularly to see its progress for this purpose.  

Abena  explained that the fruit is not cultivated  on farms like  mangoes,  oranges and pineapple but grows wildly as a gift from God. She said she had been making good business out of the tree because buyers say its fruit has medicinal properties useful for hypertension, diabetes and cancer. 

She explained that customers  like it also because it is completely natural with no chemicals used in its cultivation like other fruits. She sold four to me at GH10.

Madam Gladys Ayeh, the owner of this tree, said it bears a lot of fruits; about thrice in a year. She said she didn’t plant it; just found it growing on her compound one day.

On how useful this fruit is, Mr  Modesta Gavor of the Department of Vocation and Technical Education of the University of Cape Coast  gave further insight. He said it is common in Keta in the Volta Region where he grew up.

He said some people claim the fruit has aphrodisiac value but there has not been any scientific evidence of this. He said soursop  could be used in making  delicious drinks and   ice cream.

He observed the recent attention to the fruit and said “it is because more people are going natural, they are going back to the things that we used traditionally some many years ago. It  could  also be because of Keche’s song “Aluguntugui”, he added.

To find out more about its scientific value, I visited the Centre for  Scientific Research into plant Medicine at Mampong.

The Deputy Director of the centre, Mr Alfred Ampomah  Appiah,  said the centre was not using the fruit in the preparation of any medicine at the moment.

He said, however, that he had read publications which claimed that the fruit and particularly seeds of aluguntugui had anti-cancer properties but there was no scientific evidence to validate these claims. “Many things get published on the Internet but not all are credible,” he said.

Mr Appiah  emphasised that  “the fact that certain compounds have been found in the fruit with anti-cancer properties does not automatically mean that it has clinical effect on cancer. There is no evidence to support this”.

However,  Mr Appiah said soursop had vitamins and fructose which were beneficial to the body. He said fruits and vegetables were generally very good particularly for the prevention of diseases.

“They contain neutraceuticals which are food substances that prevent disease,” he said.

Mr Appiah advocated that the Ministry of Health places emphasis on the promotion of fruits and vegetables as part of   the diet of Ghanaians to decrease the country’s health burden.     

The Deputy Director was particularly  concerned about people who skipped  proper breakfast and made it up during the day with soft drinks and pie,  saying that  “such people end up growing to grapple with non-communicable diseases for the rest of their lives”.

He was of the view that if that state of affairs continued, the country could have a huge health burden in 10 to 20 years.

He asked food processors  to look at ways of processing and packaging such traditional foods as alefu  and kontomire to make them easier to use, since ladies of today would love to eat these foods but did not have the time to prepare them.

Mr Appiah was also concerned about the indiscriminate use of chemicals in the commercial cultivation of farm produce in the country, noting that the chemicals could have dangerous health consequences if not monitored.

“The farmers and the women who sell them know  that the chemicals are not good so they don’t eat those ones, they sell them and eat those without chemicals,” he said.

He said, for instance,  that maize grown without chemicals might have one or two weevils in them while the one with chemicals may have none.

Still commenting on soursop, Mr Appiah said even if it does not cure cancer, it definitely has nutritional values as a fruit and there is a market for it.

It would be good business if its cultivation on a large scale is started by farmers to meet  this market demand which could include export for foreign exchange.

Keche’s song only says that life is tasty like aluguntugui and the chorus mentions it  but that’s about all the song has to say about this fruit which seems to be gaining so much popularity. Perhaps it is the tongue twister which draws attention and  prompts people to find out what it is. And for those who already know, it could be a reminder.

Whichever way one looks at this fruit,  we would continue to say woyi die aluguntugui, gui, medaase to God for giving  this green fruit for  free.

Story by Doreen Hammond

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