They are a citrus hybrid that was created through an accidental cross between the sweet orange (C. × sinensis) and the pomelo (C. maxima), both of which were introduced to the Caribbean from Asia in the 17th century.

This can prolong and intensify the effects of those drugs, leading to multiple side-effects such as abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding inside the stomach, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and dizziness.

The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and generally an oblate spheroid in shape; it ranges in diameter from 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in).

[7] Using radiation to trigger mutations, new varieties were developed to retain the red tones that typically faded to pink.

Its improved attributes of mutant variety are fruit and juice color, deeper red, and wide adaptation.

[11][12] Raw white grapefruit is 90% water, 8% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table).

[15] In Costa Rica, especially in Atenas, grapefruit are often cooked with sugar to balance their sourness, rendering them as sweets; or they are stuffed with dulce de leche as a dessert.

[20] Grapefruit and grapefruit juice interact with many drugs, resulting in numerous adverse effects including bone marrow suppression, nephrotoxicity, abnormal heart rhythm, rhabdomyolysis, hypotension, gastrointestinal bleeding, dizziness, and respiratory depression, according to the drug involved.

[30] One ancestor of the grapefruit was the Jamaican sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), itself an ancient hybrid of Asian origin; the other was the Indonesian pomelo (C.

[34] In 1814, the British naturalist and plantation owner John Lunan published the term grapefruit to describe a similar Jamaican citrus plant.

[35] An alternative explanation is that this name may allude to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to bunches of grapes.

[36][37] In 1830, the Jamaican version of the plant was given the botanical name Citrus paradisi by the Scottish physician and botanist James Macfadyen.

It has been suggested that Hughes's golden orange may actually have been a grapefruit, while his forbidden fruit was a different variety that may since have been lost.

[31] A citrus called forbidden fruit or shaddette has been discovered in Saint Lucia; it may be the plant described by Hughes and Macfadyen.

Its true origins were not determined until the 1940s, at which point its official name was altered to Citrus × paradisi, the × identifying it as a hybrid.