From Plant
Resources of South-East Asia No 2: Edible fruits and nuts, PROSEA
Foundation
by E. W. M. Verheij
Taxon
Spondias cytherea Sonnerat
Protologue
Voy. Ind. Or. & Chine 3: 242, t. 123
(1782).
Family
ANACARDIACEAE
Synonym
Spondias
dulcis Soland. ex Forst.f. (1786).
Chromosome
Numbers
2n = unknown
Vernacular
Names
Ambarella, Otaheite apple, great hog plum (En). Indonesia: kedondong
manis. Malaysia: kedondong. Philippines: hevi. Burma: gway. Cambodia:
mokak. Laos: kook hvaan. Thailand: makok-farang. Vietnam:
cóc.
Origin and
Geographic Distribution
The ambarella is native throughout South and South-East Asia. It has
spread through the tropics. It is the most common Spondias species in
South-East Asia, apart from the Philippines where only Spondias
purpurea L. is well-known. Ambarella is also an important fruit in some
Pacific Island countries, e.g. Samoa. The species is so often planted
in South-East Asia, including in forest clearings, that it is
impossible to distinguish between indigenous and naturalized occurrence.
Uses
Fruit
of the best forms is eaten raw, but most ripe fruit is stewed and used
for jams, jellies and juice. Boiled and dried fruit can be kept for
several months. The green fruit is much used in green salads ('rujak')
and curries and to make pickles ('sambal'). Young steamed leaves are
eaten as a vegetable. The fruit is fed to pigs and the leaves are eaten
by cattle. The wood is light-brown and buoyant, useless as timber,
sometimes used for canoes. There are diverse medicinal uses of fruit,
leaves and bark in different parts of the world, the treatment of
wounds, sores and burns being reported from several countries.
Properties
The fruit has a leathery stone which is ridged and bears hard fibres
that project into the flesh. When green the fruit is crisp and
sub-acid; as the fruit ripens (on the tree or after harvest) to a
yellow colour, the flesh softens, the flavour changes and the fibres
become more noticeable.
Per 100 g edible portion the fruit contains: water 60—85 g,
protein 0.5—0.8 g, fat 0.3—1.8 g, sucrose
8—10.5 g, fibre 0.85—3.6 g. The fruit flesh is a
good source of vitamin C and iron; unripe it contains about 10% pectin.
Botany
Large, sometimes buttressed tree, 25(—45) m tall, trunk
45(—90) cm in diameter; bark shallowly fissured, greyish to
reddish-brown. Leaves with 4—10 pairs of leaflets, rachis
11—20 cm long, petiole 9—15 cm; leaflets
ovate-oblong to lanceolate, 5—15(—25) cm x
1.5—5 cm, chartaceous, unequal at base, margin entire,
serrate or crenulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences paniculate,
terminal, usually appearing before the leaves, up to 35 cm long;
flowers cream to white, pedicel 1—4 mm long; calyx lobes
triangular, 0.5 mm long; petals ovate-oblong, about 2.5 cm x 1 cm;
ovary 5(4)-celled, styles 5(4), free. Fruit an ellipsoid or globose
drupe, 4—10 cm x 3—8 cm, bright-orange; endocarp
peculiar, with irregular spiny and fibrous protuberances.
The tree grows quickly and bears fruit within 4 years from seed. In the
humid tropics it produces more or less continuously, following flushing
and flowering of individual twigs. In a monsoon climate flowering is
concentrated in the dry season while the trees are more or less
leafless; trees in the subtropics flower in spring. In Java trees
flower in July—August and the crop is harvested in
January—April when few other seasonal fruits are available.
The fruit matures 6—8 months after flowering; in Australia a
period of 3.5—4.5 months has been recorded. Flowers are
perfect; many fruits have only one or two seeds. Some seeds are
polyembryonic. The endocarp of good fruit has a rather small hard inner
zone which is connected to a delicate peripheral zone by numerous
radiating, straight or curved, spinose and fibrous protuberances. The
outer zone can be easily torn or peeled off from the inner one. In New
Guinea a form occurs with small, sour but edible fruits.
Ecology
Ambarella grows in the warm subtropics as well as the tropics; it is
slightly less hardy than the mango. In the tropics it is common up to
700 m altitude. The trees require much light; shaded trees produce
little or no fruit. Sheltered locations are advised, as the brittle
branches break easily. The trees are drought-tolerant; under stress
they may briefly lose their leaves. Ambarella grows on limestone soils
as well as on acid sands, but the soil should be well drained.
Agronomy
In South-East Asia ambarella is often propagated from seed, which
starts to germinate within one month. However, clonal propagation of
superior trees is recommended and not difficult: it is said that large
stumps are stuck in the ground to obtain live fence posts, and cuttings
and air layers root easily. Grafting or shield budding on Spondias
rootstocks is also possible. Seedling trees are more vigorous than
budded or grafted trees. Tree spacing varies from 7.5 m to 12 m. Trees
are prolific and respond to care (water, nutrients) but there is no
information on growing techniques or yield levels.
Genetic
Resources
Large variations in the quality of ambarella fruit are usually
attributed to seedling variation. However, although superior trees can
easily be propagated true-to-kind, no named cultivars have emerged.
This suggests that much of the variation in quality may be linked with
the stage of maturity of the fruit.
Prospects
Ambarella is a fairly common tree in large parts of South-East Asia;
the green and ripe fruits are used in a variety of ways. The trees bear
prolifically, either continuously or seasonally, depending on rainfall
distribution. Ambarella is a valuable home garden tree; much more
information is needed to assess the potential for more commercial forms
of production.
Literature
Ding Hou, 1978. Anacardiaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (Editor):
Flora Malesiana, Series 1. Vol. 8. pp. 481-483.
Molesworth Allen, B., 1967. Malayan fruits. Donald Moore Press,
Singapore. pp. 20—23.
Morton, J.F., 1987. Fruits of warm climates. Creative Resource Systems,
Winterville, N.C., USA. pp. 240—242.
Popenoe, J., 1979. The genus Spondias
in Florida. Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 92:
277 279.
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Bibliography
Verheij, E. W. M. "Spondias
cytherea Sonnerat." Edible
fruits and nuts,
Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 2, Edited by E. W. M. Verheij,
and
R. E. Coronel, PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia, record 1545, 1991, PROSEA, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0),
www.prota4u.org/prosea/view.aspx?id=1545. Accessed 16 Jan. 2023.
Published 16 Jan. 2023 LR
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