The fruit of Ananas sativa or Bromelia ananas (family Bromeliaceae); it contains a proteolytic and milk-clotting enzyme, bromelain.
* * *
pine·ap·ple 'pī-.nap-əl n
1) a tropical monocotyledonous plant (Ananas comosus of the family Bromeliaceae, the pineapple family) that has rigid spiny-margined recurved leaves and a short stalk with a dense oblong head of small abortive flowers
2) the multiple fruit of the pineapple that consists of the succulent fleshy inflorescence and whose juice is the source of the proteolytic enzyme bromelain
Medical dictionary. 2011.