**2.1 Botanical description**

*Annona muricata* is a lowland tropical, fruit-bearing tree of the annonaceae family found in African, South American, and Southeast Asian rainforests. *A. muricata*, as well known as soursop, guanabana, or Brazilian pawpaw, has large, glossy, dark green leaves but also edible, green heart-shaped fruits [6, 7]. The leathery skin of the fruits is made of a soft, curved spines, and each fruit may contain 55–170 black seeds distributed in a creamy white flesh with a clearly different aroma and flavor [8].

Coria-Téllez et al., have reported 212 bioactive compounds in *A. muricata* extracts [8]. Reports in the literature indicate that 74 of these bioactive compounds exhibit a variety of anticancer effects in preclinical cell culture and animal model systems.

The genus name "annona" is from the Latin word "anon", meaning "yearly produce", referring to the fruit production habits of the various species in this genus [9].

Annona muricata *(Graviola): Nutraceutical in COVID-19 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104139*

**Figure 3.** *Soursop fruit white pulp and seeds (own image).*
