All plants

Guyabano

Annona muricata · Soursop

Guyabano, Annona muricata
Photo: Damien Boilley from suburbs of Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Names in the book
Guanábano, Goyabano, Sp.-Fil.
Used for
Diarrhea and dysentery
Colours
flowergreenish-yellowfruitgreen
Native range
Tropical Americas
In the Philippines, per the book
All three species are common in all parts of the Archipelago.
Family
Annonaceae, filed in the book under Anonaceæ
Printed as
Anona muricata, L.
Sources
Page 22 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia

The plant today

Soursop (also called graviola, guyabano, and in Hispanic America guanábana) is the fruit of Annona muricata, a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree. It is native to the tropical Americas and is widely propagated. It is in the same genus, Annona, as cherimoya and is in the Annonaceae family. The soursop is adapted to areas of high humidity and relatively warm winters; temperatures below 5 °C (41 °F) will cause damage to leaves and small branches, and temperatures below 3 °C (37 °F) can be fatal. The fruit becomes dry and is no longer good for concentrate.

Excerpt from “Soursop” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sa Tagalog

Ang guyabano, guayabano, guwayabano o guwebano (Ingles: soursop) ay isang uri ng prutas o puno na may bilugang mga bunga.

Sipi mula sa “Guyabano” sa Tagalog Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recorded in the Philippines

GBIF holds 334 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 38 provinces, most often Zamboanga del Norte (134), Agusan del Sur (20), Iloilo (18), Davao del Sur (10), Benguet (9), Nueva Ecija (9), Cebu (8), Guimaras (8), and 30 more.

Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.

What the 1901 book says

A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.

Uses

The ripe fruit possesses antiscorbutic properties; the unripe fruit is used in treating dysentery. It is said that the ripe fruit is used in diseases of the liver.

Botanical description

Tree with leaves oval, alternate and glabrous. Flower solitary, terminal, whitish. The fruit is much larger than that of the other species, is covered with scales that end in a soft point or thorn and has a very pronounced acid taste.

Recent research

The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.

  1. Biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles mediated Annona muricata as cytotoxic and apoptosis inducer factor in breast cancer cell linesMahmood RI and others, Sci Rep, 2022
  2. Pharmacological Activities of Soursop (Annona muricata Lin.)Mutakin M and others, Molecules, 2022 Review
  3. A Review on Annona muricata and Its Anticancer ActivityIlango S and others, Cancers (Basel), 2022 Review
All 129 results on Europe PMC