From the book
Fruits of Warm Climates
by Julia F. Morton
Wood-Apple
Feronia limonia Swingle
Feronia elephantum Correa
Limonia acidissima L.
Schinus limonia L.
RUTACEAE
The wood-apple, Feronia limonia Swingle (syns. F. elephantum Correa; Limonia acidissima L.; Schinus limonia
L.) is the only species of its genus, in the family Rutaceae. Besides
wood-apple, it may be called elephant apple, monkey fruit, curd fruit,
kath bel and other dialectal names in India. In Malaya it is gelinggai
or belinggai; in Thailand, ma-khwit; in Cambodia, kramsang; in Laos,
ma-fit. In French, it is pomme d' elephant, pomme de bois, or citron
des mois.
Description
The slow-growing
tree is erect, with a few upward-reaching branches bending outward near
the summit where they are subdivided into slender branchlets drooping
at the tips. The bark is ridged, fissured and scaly and there are sharp
spines: 3/4 to 2 in (2-5 cm) long on some of the zigzag twigs. The
deciduous, alternate leaves, 3 to 5 in (7.5-12.5 cm) long, dark-green,
leathery, often minutely toothed, blunt or notched at the apex, are
dotted with oil glands and slightly lemon-scented when crushed.
Dull-red or greenish flowers to 1/2 in (1.25 cm) wide are borne in
small, loose, terminal or lateral panicles. They are usually bisexual.
The fruit is round to oval, 2 to 5 in (5-12.5 cm) wide, with a hard,
woody, grayish-white, scurfy rind about 1/4 in (6 mm) thick. The pulp
is brown, mealy, odorous, resinous, astringent, acid or sweetish, with
numerous small, white seeds scattered through it.
Origin and
Distribution
The
wood-apple is native and common in the wild in dry plains of India and
Ceylon and cultivated along roads and edges of fields and occasionally
in orchards. It is also frequently grown throughout Southeast Asia, in
northern Malaya and on Penang Island. In India, the fruit was
traditionally a "poor man's food" until processing techniques were
developed in the mid-1950's.
Varieties
There are 2 forms, one with large, sweetish fruits; one with small, acid fruits.
Climate
The tree grows up to
an elevation of 1,500 ft (450 m) in the western Himalayas. It is said
to require a monsoon climate with a distinct dry season.
Soil
Throughout its range there is a diversity of soil types, but it is best adapted to light soils.
Propagation
The wood-apple
is generally grown from seeds though seedlings will not bear fruit
until at least 15 years old. Multiplication may also be by root
cuttings, air-layers, or by budding onto self-seedlings to induce
dwarfing and precociousness.
Season
In Malaya, the leaves
are shed in January, flowering occurs in February and March, and the
fruit matures in October and November. In India, the fruit ripens from
early October through March.
Harvesting
The fruit is
tested for maturity by dropping onto a hard surface from a height of 1
ft (30 cm). Immature fruits bounce, while mature fruits do not. After
harvest, the fruit is kept in the sun for 2 weeks to fully ripen.
Food Uses
The rind must be
cracked with a hammer. The scooped-out pulp, though sticky, is eaten
raw with or without sugar, or is blended with coconut milk and
palm-sugar sirup and drunk as a beverage, or frozen as an ice cream. It
is also used in chutneys and for making jelly and jam. The jelly is
purple and much like that made from black currants.
A bottled
nectar is made by diluting the pulp with water, passing through a
pulper to remove seeds and fiber, further diluting, straining, and
pasteurizing. A clear juice for blending with other fruit juices, has
been obtained by clarifying the nectar with Pectinol R-10. Pulp
sweetened with sirup of cane or palm sugar, has been canned and
sterilized. The pulp can be freeze-dried for future use but it has not
been satisfactorily dried by other methods.
| Food
Value Per
100 g of Edible Portion* |
|
Pulp (ripe) | Seeds |
| Moisture |
74.0% | 4.0% |
|
Protein |
8.0% | 26.18% |
| Fat |
1.45% | 27.0% |
| Carbohydrates |
7.45% | 35.49% |
| Ash |
5.0% | 5.03% |
| Calcium |
0.17% | 1.58% |
| Phosphorus |
0.08% | 1.43% |
| Iron |
0.07% | 0.03% |
| Tannins |
1.03% | 0.08% |
| *According
to analyses made in India | |
|
The pulp represents 36% of the whole fruit. The pectin content of
the pulp is 3 to 5% (16% yield on dry-weight basis). The seeds contain
a bland, non-bitter, oil high in unsaturated fatty acids.
Other Uses
Pectin: The pectin has potential for multiple uses in pectin-short India, but it is reddish and requires purification.
Rind: The fruit shell is fashioned into snuffboxes and other small containers.
Gum:
The trunk and branches exude a white, transparent gum especially
following the rainy season. It is utilized as a substitute for, or
adulterant of, gum arabic, and is also used in making artists'
watercolors, ink, dyes and varnish. It consists of 35.5% arabinose and
xylose, 42.7% d-galactose, and traces of rhamnose and glucuronic acid.
Wood
The wood is yellow-gray or whitish, hard, heavy, durable, and valued
for construction, pattern-making, agricultural implements, rollers for
mills, carving, rulers, and other products. It also serves as fuel.
The heartwood contains ursolic acid and a flavanone glycoside, 7-methylporiol-b-D-xylopyranosyl-D-glucopyranoside.
Medicinal
Uses
The fruit is much used in India as a liver and cardiac tonic, and, when
unripe, as an astringent means of halting diarrhea and dysentery and
effective treatment for hiccough, sore throat and diseases of the gums.
The pulp is poulticed onto bites and stings of venomous insects, as is
the powdered rind.
Juice of young leaves is mixed with milk and
sugar candy and given as a remedy for biliousness and intestinal
troubles of children. The powdered gum, mixed with honey, is given to
overcome dysentery and diarrhea in children.
Oil derived from the
crushed leaves is applied on itch and the leaf decoction is given to
children as an aid to digestion. Leaves, bark, roots and fruit pulp are
all used against snakebite. The spines are crushed with those of other
trees and an infusion taken as a remedy for menorrhagia. The bark is
chewed with that of Barringtonia and applied on venomous wounds.
The
unripe fruits contain 0.015% stigmasterol. Leaves contain stigmasterol
(0.012%) and bergapten (0.01%). The bark contains 0.016% marmesin. Root
bark contains aurapten, bergapten, isopimpinellin and other coumarins.
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