When it comes to skin care, Mother Nature leaves no stone unturned. Nature is such a rich treasure chest, offering seemingly infinite gems that come in various shapes, sizes, and colours. The very best are edible, taste delicious, and can help you reach your skin care goals. That’s also why the persimmon has beautiful, even legendary monikers such as “the fruit of the gods”, “jove’s fire”, and more down to earth names such “nature’s candy” or “apple of the orient”.
Persimmon can only be considered a super fruit because it’s rich in flavonoids, polyphenols, tannins, organic acids, vitamins, and minerals. Yet one fruit comes at only around 118 calories. It’s so beneficial that empresses and princesses in China have used it for ages for their skin care, because it helped brighten and even out their skin tone as well as being moisturising.
Persimmon, the fruit of gods
Although its botanical name, Diospyros kaki has Greek origins, it’s native to China. It was first cultivated in China more than 2000 years ago. In the 7th century it made its way to Japan and in 19th century to Southern Europe and California, US.
Persimmon is also often called Oriental, Chinese, or Japanese persimmon, kaki persimmon, or just kaki. The first part of the scientific name Diospyros kaki, Diospyros is derived from the Greek words dios and pyros. It literally means “Zeus’s wheat”. Translated freely, it’s more like divine food or fruit of the gods.
Kaki is one of the oldest cultivated plants, with a history of more than 2000 years. The plant looks a bit like an apple tree in shape. It can grow to about 10 metres tall and has glossy medium to dark green leaves that are stiff. It bloomed from May to June. The fruit season is typically October through winter.
At first glance, kaki looks like a giant tomato. It has a cap of 3-4 leaves and the skin looks almost like glazed. The fruit flesh is soft and has a lighter shade of orange. Just like a tomato, the fruit with the colours of a sunset is what botanists call a berry. There are several types of kaki, but what you mostly see in the shops are hachiya and fuyu.
When ripe, kaki has a beautiful sweet flavour but it taste nothing like a tomato. Its complex taste reminds you of a mix of dates, pear, honey and maybe a light touch of cinnamon.
Unripe, the fruit is hard and has high levels of tannins so that it can remind you of raw unpeeled chestnut and it will give you a mouth-puckering and furry feel. With progressive maturation, a kaki gets softer and softer. During the ripening process, the furry taste gets less and less until it completely disappears when ripe.
Content
Aside from the tannins that will give you a dry, almost numbing feeling, kaki contains vitamins C, B6, E, and K. It also has a high amount of the essential minerals, potassium, copper, and manganese. It’s rich in the carotenoids beta cryptoxanthin, beta carotene, and zeaxanthin. It also provides you with the carotenoids lutein and alpha-carotene. And lastly, it’s a good source of fibres.
For your skin
It’s kaki’s unique content that makes it so that it can not only help you reach your skin care goals but are good for you overall.
Even out skin tone
Let’s start with your goal to fade dark spots and even out your skin tone. As a rich source of vitamins C and E, it will help you lighten freckles while nourishing and repairing your skin cells. It’s the magic combo of vitamin E and vitamin C, which in itself has many skin care benefits.
Packed with antioxidants
The vitamin C and E also act as antioxidants. Apart from these vitamins, the carotenoids also function as antioxidants.
When you’re exposed to the sun or environmental pollution, free radicals are formed in your body. When these enter your cells, they can cause serious damage, from damaging the cell membrane to DNA, even potentially killing the cells.
Your body produces some antioxidants but a lot comes from what you eat. Antioxidants are how you combat free radicals and the oxidative stress they cause. Eating foods containing antioxidants helps you decrease the risk of getting health issues.
It’s the same for your: They reverse or prevent free radicals from damaging your skin. Free radical damage may lead to inflammation. This is bad news because it gets in the way of your skin’s self-repair systems (that is when you sleep). Down the line, you can see spots, hyperpigmentation, and wrinkles.
Help your skin repair itself
Antioxidants have anti-inflammatory properties. This is good news because it means they can lessen inflammation. Thanks to reducing inflammation, antioxidants speed up your skin’s natural repairing process. They allow your skin to repair itself and correct visible damage.
All antioxidants help brighten your skin tone since they help protect against sun damage. For one, they lessen your skin’s inflammatory response to UV radiation. This helps prevent sunburn and provides added protection against the sun and photo-ageing. By reducing or preventing photo-damage, they also help prevent your skin from getting dark spots. And vitamin C functions both as an antioxidant as well as works to inhibit tyrosinase, your skin gets more even-toned with time.
As a side note: tyrosinase is an enzyme that your skin needs to make the pigment melanin which in turn gives your skin its colour.
Keep your skin firm and plump
Thanks to the antioxidants present in kaki, it protects your skin from the harmful effects of UV rays, cigarette smoke. But it does more: It can also protect against the enzymes elastase and collagenase. Both enzymes break down proteins. Bad news because the proteins collagen and elastin form a scaffold-like layer that gives your skin structure and makes it flexible.
Kaki is good news if you want to keep your skin bouncy and firm because it protects against collagen and elastin breakdown.
How to pick and store a kaki
Unripe kaki is hard and gets softer with increasing maturity, similar to a kiwifruit. You want to buy one that feels heavy for its size. Look for one that has a glossy skin, without damage.
It’s a delicate fruit when ripe. When not ripe, you can keep it in a fridge for up to 14 days. For best results, it’s best to eat it as well as apply it to your skin.
Takeaway
Persimmons are high in vitamins, minerals, and carotenoids. The carotenoids lead a double life. They can function as antioxidants and be converted into vitamin A. Vitamin A in skin care is just beloved and versatile as vitamin C. It speeds up cell renewal and repair. It promotes natural moisturising. It reduces breakouts. It smooths out lines better than a filter… and the list goes on.
So, kaki, helps you even out your skin tone, clears your skin, and then helps you look younger longer. In one brief: A kaki can help you keep your complexion looking timeless and beautiful.
Normally, when people eat the fruit, the cap of green leaves is tossed out while the fruit is eaten. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, kaki leaves were used to fade dark spots. If you’re lucky and find a kaki tree in your garden, take its green leaves and dry them. Ground the dry leaves into a powder and mix them with your moisturiser or vaseline. Apply this cream where you want to fade the dark spots.
