The scientific name of the avocado tree is Persea americana Mill and it belongs to the family Lauraceae. Its fruit is botanically classified as a berry consisting of the seed and the pericarp. The pericarp has three parts; the outer layer (exocarp), the flesh part (mesocarp), and the very thin layer next to the seed coat (endocarp) (Seymour, 1993). This blog post is mainly about the nutritional value and benefits of Avocado. Nutritional value and composition of Avocado fruit This fruit is very rich in unsaturated fats and vitamins and its flesh has more energy value than meat of equal weight (Seymour, 1993). One can easily know the composition and nutritional value, of this fruit has, by looking at the table below (Dreher, 2013): Value per 1 fruit, 1/2 fruit, 68 g 1 serving, 30 g Nutrient/phytochemical 100 g 136 g (NHANES eating occasion) (NLEA serving) Proximates Water (g) 72.3 98.4 49.2 21.7 Energy (kcal) 167 227 114 50 Energy (kcal