From the Americas to the Philippines. The travels of the pineapple: a sixteenth-century globe trotter

Abstract

Originating in South America, the pineapple –Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.– underwent a lengthy domestication process. Since ancient times, the Native Americans had taken it with them on their migrations and valued the sweetness of its pulp, its medicinal properties, and the quality of its fibre. Much later it was described by Spanish chronicles in Central America and observed by European travellers and missionaries along the Brazilian coast. From the 1560s, the fruit was transported by the Portuguese from Brazil to East Africa and the West coast of India, and from here it was later transferred to other parts of Asia. In the 1580s, the Spanish introduced the species into the Philippines from the New World. This work focuses on the importance that pineapple cultivation has attained in the tropics, especially in the Philippines; it highlights the success that fabrics and embroidery made from fibres extracted from the pineapple achieved in the late sixteenth century; it demonstrates how the introduction of a foreign vegetable species into the Philippines has today resulted in an industry that supports local farmers in the sustainable production of raw materials, providing a means of production for artisans in the region and contributing to the success of a circular economy on a global scale.