A crab apple clone (Malus brevipes1021), highly resistant to the apple maggot, is being used in breeding programs developing commercial apple cultivars. This study has discovered that this crab apple contains a natural cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitor that caused a 77.5% in vitro inhibition of rat blood ChE activity. This crab apple also showed a relatively high total (titratable) acidity of 1.28%. The commercial, nonresistant, apple cultivar McIntosh was capable of causing a 7.9% inhibition of blood ChE in vitro. The total acidity in Mclntosh was 0.45%. A 4‐wk feeding study compared 2 groups of 5‐wk‐old Fischer 344 male rats fed diets containing 45% of either M. brevipes or Mclntosh freeze‐dried apples to a third (control) group of rats fed a semipurified diet. In vivo blood ChE activities were similar in all groups of rats, as well as hemoglobin, hematocrit, and red blood cell counts. The liver mixed‐function oxidase activity through aminopyrine U‐demethylase in the rats fed the apple diets was higher than the controls, but p‐nitroanisoleO‐demethylase activity was induced only in the animals fed the maggot‐resistant crab apple. Lowered growth with concomitant lowered food intake, in the otherwise healthy rats fed the maggot‐resistant crab apple diet, was attributed to the less palatable, highly acidic fruit. This study indicates that the natural ChE inhibitor in the insect‐resistant appleM. brevipesis apparently detoxified upon ingestion.