The Pawpaw Paradox: What This Native Fruit Teaches Us About Food and Poison

American pawpaws (Asimina triloba) have been part of my foraging journey for decades. When I began foraging in New Jersey 42 years ago, at age 10, I would pore over the photo plates in my field guides—images of exotic-looking tropical fruits that, remarkably, grew natively in my region. For years, I searched without success. Eventually, I found pawpaw trees, but they never fruited. Each season I returned in hope, always disappointed.

I vividly remember spotting my first fruiting pawpaws—on the side of Route 130 in Hamilton, New Jersey, at a jug handle. After that, everything changed. I doubled down, locating groves and harvesting fruit across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and later in Maryland, where I could see pawpaws from my own front porch. Every fall, I’d gather grocery bags full—eating them fresh, freezing pulp for ice cream, and celebrating this elusive fruit I once only dreamed of tasting.

Nearly 20 years ago, I learned that George Washington, namesake of the college where I was teaching archaeology, considered pawpaws his favorite fruit and enjoyed one chilled each evening when in season. I felt connected not only to this remarkable fruit, but also to a long legacy of people who cherished it.

Then one season, everything changed again.

About six years ago, I dehydrated pawpaw pulp into fruit leather. My son Billy and I each took the tiniest nibble—no more than a ¼-inch piece. Within an hour, we were both hit with excruciating headaches, explosive diarrhea, and vomiting. Two hours later, just as suddenly, the symptoms disappeared. That experience drove me deep into the science of pawpaws and forced me to rethink fruit’s role in our diet.

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What Are Pawpaws?

• Native range: Pawpaws are the largest edible fruit native to North America.

• Family: They belong to the Annonaceae (custard apple) family, cousins to tropical fruits like cherimoya and soursop.

• Flavor & texture: Often described as banana-meets-mango-meets-melon, with a custard-like texture—sweet, tropical, and almost shocking to find in temperate forests.

The Downsides: Pawpaw Toxins

Pawpaws contain annonacin, a powerful neurotoxin found in the seeds, skin, and unripe fruit. While the ripe pulp has been eaten traditionally, annonacin is not completely absent.

Effects of exposure can include:

• Gastrointestinal distress (vomiting, diarrhea, nausea)

• Neurological symptoms (headaches, dizziness)

• With chronic or repeated exposure, annonacin has been linked to atypical Parkinsonism in regions where related fruits like soursop are consumed daily.

My own experience with dehydrated pawpaw pulp was an acute case of this toxicity: drying concentrated annonacin enough to cause sudden and severe poisoning.

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Fruit’s Evolutionary Role

Fruit exists for one reason: to serve the plant.

• Ripe fruit = attractant. Bright color, sweet aroma, pleasant flavor—all signals that seeds inside are mature and ready to be spread.

• Unripe fruit = deterrent. Bitter taste, unappealing texture, toxins—all chemical defenses to prevent animals from consuming seeds that cannot yet survive.

Seeds themselves are designed to survive digestion. Many even require scarification—physical or chemical abrasion in an animal’s digestive tract—before they can germinate.

Pawpaws illustrate this perfectly: unripe fruit, seeds, and skin are toxic; ripe pulp is appealing and safe enough to encourage animals to eat it and spread the seeds.

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Lessons From Pawpaws

Pawpaw-specific takeaways

• Only eat fully ripe fruit.

• Never consume seeds or skin.

• Avoid contamination during processing (e.g. don’t run pulp through a mill that could nick seeds).

• Never dehydrate or cook pawpaws, which can concentrate toxins.

• Know your body: some people react to pawpaws even when ripe and fresh.

General fruit lessons

• Eat fruit only when ripe.

• Discard skins and seeds, especially when known to contain toxins.

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Takeaway

Pawpaws remind us that every fruit carries a tension between nourishment and defense. They are gifts of evolution, but also weapons in a plant’s survival strategy. By respecting ripeness, discarding toxic parts, and remembering that fruit exists first to serve the plant—not us—we can enjoy these foods safely and gain a deeper understanding of their role in our diets.