Anjeer or fig is a fruit native to the Mediterranean region, South Asia, and West Asia. Often dried, the ingredient is used to prepare a variety of delicacies. Boasting a mild sweet taste, soft insides, and a subtle crunch, it is considered healthy for digestion, regulating sugar levels, and supporting heart health.
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Anjeer barfi, rolls, kheer, ladoo, and several other Indian delights are prepared with it. Not only that, the fruit is also used to add a distinct taste to baked goods as well. However, did you know that figs are non-vegetarian? Many people don’t know but anjeer has an interesting story of pollination using wasps, which is why several Jain and Brahmins (who are predominantly vegetarians) don’t eat it if they are not commercially produced.
Why Some People Call Anjeer A Non-Vegetarian Fruit?
Anjeer grows in the rocky terrain, at least 1,700 metres above sea level. It is believed it was first cultivated at least thousands of years ago. In fact, in ancient Palestine, figs cakes were quite popular and prepared using a specific variety.
Now you must be wondering why some call it a non-vegetarian fruit. In classes five to eight, children are taught about the importance of pollination. Bees, birds, insects, and winds are crucial for this step. In the pollination of figs, wasps play a huge role. While these are irritating insects in the summer season and often ruin your picnic experience, without them, you cannot imagine figs to ever exist naturally.
A female wasp often crawls inside the fruit in the initial stage when its flower is hiding inside, somewhere at the centre of it. The insect will check if the fruit is male, and it will lay eggs inside. The eggs hatch inside, mate, and the male wasps fly outside, followed by females. They take their eggs as well as some pollen which are transported to other figs.
If the flower inside the fruit is a female, the wasp will only pollinate the fruit and leave it without laying eggs. However, in the process of entering the fruit, a wasp can lose its wings, legs, or even antennas because the opening is tight and small.
The wingless male and female wasps that cannot escape the fruit, die inside it. The enzyme in figs, called ficin, breaks down the dead wasps so that the leftover compound becomes the food for the fruit and gets absorbed by it.
Are Figs Non-Vegetarian Or Vegan?
You must note that not every fig would have decomposed bodies of wasps inside it. Either way, what you should note is that the crunch is from the seeds and not from the dead and decayed wasps. However, there is no way to identify which fig might have had dead wasps broken down by its enzymes. This is the reason why many Jains and Brahmins avoid consuming it.
But you must also know that new techniques are used to grow figs these days. They don’t use wasps for pollination, instead, farmers spray some hormones on them so they ripe well. In fact, commercially grown anjeer don't have a trace of wasp. Depending on the growing method, one may categorise figs under the category of vegan products. Will you call figs non-vegetarian or vegan produce?