Elementary's Give Me the Finger: Not the Southeast Asian Fruit Durian

Summary: The southeast Asian fruit durian is crime-solving, not room-refreshening, in Elementary Season 6's sixth episode Give Me the Finger June 4, 2018.

ca. 1824 watercolor of Durian zibethinus; From an Album of 40 Drawings of Plants Made by Chinese Artists at Bencoolen, Sumatra, for Sir Stamford Raffles: The British Library, No known copyright restrictions, via Flickr

The Asian fruit durian attacks a room just as it acquits all but one suspect in the Give Me the Finger episode of the Columbia Broadcasting System series Elementary June 4, 2018.

Director Jonny Lee Miller and writers Robert Doherty, Jordan Rosenberg and Kelly Wheeler bring the bitter, dry, sweet, wet space-clearing crime-solver into Season 6's sixth episode. Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) culls the criminal from contracted hacking of missile command and control network upgrades and from cooked garlic, hot peppers and oil. He decides to devour durian, despite "the mingled stench of rotting flesh, ammonia and gym socks," since the "blend of minerals and vitamins is highly therapeutic."

Sherlock explains, "Everyone else had an involuntary reaction to the durian's stench," but the perpetrator's "nose gave you away" from a "head injury at the academy."

The southeast Asian fruit durian fits into the Malvaceae hibiscus and mallow family as 24 to 30 species found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

Durian gets its common name from the Malay duri for "thorny" and the scientific genus name Durio from taxonomist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778). The 82.02- to 164.04-foot (25- to 50-meter) evergreen has oblong, round-based, tapering, 3.94- to 7.09-inch- (10- to 18-centimeter-) long leaves and large, sour milk-scented green-white-yellow flowers. The cup-like, four- to six-petalled, leathery, three- to 30-clustered blooms, whose nightly pollination nectar-imbibing, pollen-ingesting bats initiate, incline cauliflorously directly along old, strong branches and trunks.

Temperatures below 72 degrees Fahrenheit (161.6 degrees Celsius) jeopardize sustainability of the 2- to 7-pound (0.91- to 3.18-kilogram), 11.81-inch- (30-centimeter-) long, spherical southeast Asian fruit durian.

The June- through August-fruiting southeast Asian fruit durian knows a brown- or green-rinded, hard, stout-spined, thorny external husk with 5.91- to 7.87-inch (15- to 20-centimeter) diameters.

The outer protective shell lodges five internal oval compartments, each with three to five chestnut-like (Castanea spp) seeds in juicy, yellow-covered arils in creamy, fleshy pulp. The creamy white or pale orange, red or yellow pulp of Durio zibethinus (durian Indian civet-like) and eight other edible species maintains custard-like, room-temperature butter-like consistencies. Dry or wet textures, roastable seeds and savory or sweet tastes nudge only cultivars (cultivated varieties) of Durio zibethinus into international cuisine and trade outside Asia.

Local folklore anecdotally offers washing one's hands in durian husk-seeped water as the only option for obscuring the rancid odors of the southeast Asian fruit durian.

Research in 2012 by Jia-Ziao Li, Peter Schieberle and Martin Steinhaus presented 44 odor-active compounds behind caramel, fruity, honey, roasted onion, rotten, soup seasoning, skunky scents.

Elephants, giant honeybees, monkeys, mouse-deer, orangutans, pigs, spiderhunters, squirrels, tapirs and tigers queue up for Durio dulcis, grandiflorus, graveolens, kutejensis, lowianus, macrantha, oxleyanus, testudinarum and zibethinus. Kevin Farrell reported Jan. 30, 2018, for EatSipTrip that eating or transporting durian results in Singapore Metro passenger fines of 500 SDG (Singapore Dollar, U.S. $382). Research in 2009 in Japan and the Philippines suggested that durian suppresses by 70 percent the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase's struggle against toxic production from alcohol metabolism.

Trying trendy durian tackles Sherlock's mineral and vitamin requirements and perpetrators without senses of smell, but not his well-being if teetotaling trips over temptations and tragedies.

Jonny Lee Miller makes his television directorial debut in CBS Elementary tv series' Give Me the Finger (season 6 episode 6): Elementary Writers @ELEMENTARYStaff, via Twitter June 4, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

ca. 1824 watercolor of Durian zibethinus; From an Album of 40 Drawings of Plants Made by Chinese Artists at Bencoolen, Sumatra, for Sir Stamford Raffles: The British Library, No known copyright restrictions, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/12458927503

Jonny Lee Miller makes his television directorial debut in CBS Elementary tv series' Give Me the Finger (season 6 episode 6): Elementary Writers @ELEMENTARYStaff, via Twitter June 4, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/ELEMENTARYStaff/status/1003711007510822912

For further information:

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London England: George Newnes Ltd., 1892.

"Give Me the Finger." Elementary: The Sixth Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, June 4, 2018.

Jia-Xiao Li; Peter Schieberle; and Martin Steinhaus. 23 October 2012. "Characterization of the Major Odor-Active Compounds in Thai Durian (Durio zibethinus L. 'Monthong') by Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis and Headspace Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 60, no. 45: 11253-11262. DOI:10.1021/jf303881k
Available @ https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf303881k?prevSearch=durian&searchHistoryKey=&

Maninang, John S.; Ma. Concepcion C. Lizada; and Hiroshi Gemma. 15 November 2009. "Inhibition of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Enzymes by Durian (Durio zibethinus Murray) Fruit Extract." Food Chemistry, vol. 117, issue 2: 352-355. DOI:10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.03.106
Available @ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814609004324?via%3Dihub

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