Is santol a fruit or vegetable? Unpacking the cotton fruit controversy
                                
                                
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                                    4 min read                                
                            
                                Botanically, a fruit is the mature ovary of a flowering plant, which contains the seed or seeds. Santol, known scientifically as *Sandoricum koetjape*, is the textbook definition of a fruit, producing large, seed-containing orbs from its flowers. This tropical delicacy, often referred to as the cotton fruit, is unequivocally a fruit, not a vegetable, despite its various culinary applications.