From the book
Fruits of Warm Climates
by Julia F. Morton
Sapodilla
Manilkara
zapota van
Royen
Manilkara achras
Fosb.
Manilkara zapotilla
Gillys
SAPOTACEAE
One of the most interesting and desirable of all tropical fruit
trees, the sapodilla, a member of the family Sapotaceae, is now known
botanically as Manilkara zapota van Royen (syns. M. achras Fosb., M.
zapotilla Gilly; Achras sapota L., A. zapota L.; Sapota achras Mill.).
Among
numerous vernacular names, some of the most common are: baramasi
(Bengal and Bihar, India); buah chiku (Malaya); chicle (Mexico); chico
(Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico); chicozapote (Guatemala, Mexico,
Venezuela); chikoo (India); chiku (Malaya, India); dilly (Bahamas;
British West Indies); korob (Costa Rica); mespil (Virgin Islands);
mispel, mispu (Netherlands Antilles, Surinam); muy (Guatemala);
muyozapot (El Salvador); naseberry (Jamaica; British West Indies);
neeseberry (British West Indies; nispero (Puerto Rico, Central America,
Venezuela); nispero quitense (Ecuador); sapodilla plum (India); sapota
(India); sapotí (Brazil); sapotille (French West Indies);
tree
potato (India); Ya (Guatemala; Yucatan); zapota (Venezuela); zapote
(Cuba); zapote chico (Mexico; Guatemala); zapote morado (Belize);
zapotillo (Mexico).
Fig. 107: The sapodilla (M. zapota) is
sweet, luscious, practical and borne abundantly by a handsome, drought-
and wind-resistant tree.
Description
The
sapodilla is a fairly slow-growing, long-lived tree, upright and
elegant, distinctly pyramidal when young; to 60 ft (18 m) high in the
open but reaching 100 ft (30 m) when crowded in a forest. It is strong
and wind-resistant, rich in white, gummy latex. Its leaves are highly
ornamental, evergreen, glossy, alternate, spirally clustered at the
tips of the forked twigs; elliptic, pointed at both ends, firm, 3 to 4
1/2 in (7.5-11.25 cm) long and 1 to 1 1/2 in (2.5-4 cm) wide. Flowers
are small and bell-like, with 3 brown-hairy outer sepals and 3 inner
sepals enclosing the pale-green corolla and 6 stamens. They are borne
on slender stalks at the leaf bases. The fruit may be nearly round,
oblate, oval, ellipsoidal, or conical; varies from 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm)
in width. When immature it is hard, gummy and very astringent. Though
smooth-skinned it is coated with a sandy brown scurf until fully ripe.
The flesh ranges in color from yellowish to light- or dark-brown or
sometimes reddish-brown; may be coarse and somewhat grainy or smooth;
becomes soft and very juicy, with a sweet flavor resembling that of a
pear. Some fruits are seedless, but normally there may be from 3 to 12
seeds which are easily removed as they are loosely held in a whorl of
slots in the center of the fruit. They are brown or black, with one
white margin; hard, glossy; long-oval, flat, with usually a distinct
curved hook on one margin; and about 1/4 in (2 cm) long.
Origin and Distribution
The
sapodilla is believed native to Yucatan and possibly other nearby parts
of southern Mexico, as well as northern Belize and Northeastern
Guatemala. In this region there were once 100,000,000 trees. The
species is found in forests throughout Central America where it has
apparently been cultivated since ancient times. It was introduced long
ago throughout tropical America and the West Indies, the Bahamas,
Bermuda, the Florida Keys and the southern part of the Florida
mainland. Early in colonial times, it was carried to the Philippines
and later was adopted everywhere in the Old World tropics. It reached
Ceylon in 1802.
Cultivation is most extensive in coastal India
(Maharastra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madras and Bengal States), where
plantations are estimated to cover 4,942 acres (2,000 ha), while Mexico
has 3,733.5 acres (1,511 ha) devoted to the production of fruit (mainly
in the states of Campeche and Veracruz) and 8,192 acres (4,000 ha)
primarily for extraction of chicle (see under "Other Uses") as well as
many dooryard and wild trees. Commercial plantings prosper in Sri
Lanka, the Philippines, the interior valleys of Palestine, as well as
in various countries of South and Central America, including Venezuela
and Guatemala.
Cultivars
In
most areas, types are distinguished merely by shape, as 'Round' and
'Oval' in Saharanpur, India. Several named cultivars are grown for
commercial or home use in western and southern India: 'Kalipatti',
small, early, high quality; 'Calcutta
Special', large, late;
'Pilipatti',
small, midseason to late; 'Bhuripatti',
small, midseason;
'Jumakhia',
small, in clusters, late; 'Mohan
Gooti', small, midseason,
not very sweet; 'Kittubarti',
very small, ridged, very sweet;
'Kittubarti
Big', large, but of inferior quality; 'Cricket Ball', very
large, with crisp, granular, very sweet flesh but not distinctive in
flavor; 'Dwarapudi',
similar, but not quite as big, sweet and very
popular; 'Bangalore',
large, ridged, and 'Vavivalasa'
are oval and
popular in the Circars but are only medium-sweet and bear poorly.
Other
prominent cultivars in India are 'Jonnavalosa-I',
of medium size,
pale-fleshed, sweet; 'Jonnavalosa-Il',
of medium size, ridged, with
yellowish-pink flesh, sweet but not agreeable in flavor; 'Jonnavalosa
Round', large, ridged, with cream-colored flesh, very
sweet;
'Gauranga',
small, lop-sided, ridged, very sweet, bears heavily;
'Ayyangar',
large, very thick-skinned, sweet, rose-scented;
'Thagarampudi',
of medium size, thin-skinned, very sweet; 'Oaka',
small, rounded to oval, of good flavor and popular. Among the
lesser-known are 'Badam',
'Bhuri', 'Calcutta Round', 'CO. 1' ('Cricket
Ball' X 'Long Oval'), 'Dhola
diwani', 'Fingar',
'Gavarayya',
'Guthi',
'Kali', and 'Vanjet'.
A dwarf type called 'Pot'
bears early and can be maintained as a pot specimen for 10 years.
Henry
Pittier, in 1914, described what he deemed a "remarkable variety"
called nispero de monte at Patiño, Panama. The trees do not
exceed 26 ft (8 m) in height and bear small, oblate fruits in dense
clusters.
In Indonesia, sapodillas are classed in two main groups:
1) Sawo maneela, normal-size trees having narrow, pointed leaves; and
2) Sawo apel, low, shrublike trees, with oblong leaves broadest above
the middle. Belonging to group #1 are the common cultivars 'Sawo
betawi' (fruit large, in clusters of 2-4, popular,
perishable, ripening
in 3 days from picking); 'Sawo
koolon' (fruit large, solitary, thick
skinned, with firm flesh, shipping well); 'Sawo madja' (large,
with
persistent scurf, pulp of fine texture, sweet with an acid tang).
Belonging to group #2 are 'Sawo
apel bener' (fruits small in clusters
of 3-6, thick-skinned); 'Sawo
apel klapa' (fruits medium-size, with
persistent scurf). Some others are little grown because the fruits are
either very small, too sandy, too gummy, or too dry.
In Mexico, some superior selections are known merely as 'SCH-02','SCH-03','SCH-07', 'SCH-08',
and 'SCH-28'.
In
Florida, seedling selections of high quality have been named and
vegetatively reproduced. The first of these was 'Russell' from
Islamorada in the Florida Keys, named and propagated by R.H.
Fitzpatrick. It is nearly round, up to 4 in (10 cm) in diameter and
length, brown-scurfy with gray patches, and luscious, reddish flesh. It
is not a dependable bearer.
The second, 'Prolific',
a seedling grown
at the Agricultural Research and Education Center, Homestead, and
released in 1941, is round-conical, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 in (6.25-9 cm) long
and broad, with smooth, pinkish-tan flesh. The skin is lighter than
that of the 'Russell' and tends to lose much of the scurf as it ripens.
The tree bears early, consistently and heavily. Of later selection,
'Modello' is
a good quality fruit but not a heavy producer; 'Seedless'
yields poorly; 'Brown
Sugar' is a good, regular, high yielder; handles
and keeps well.
Some introduced cultivars being tested in Florida
include: 'Boetzberg',
'Larsen', 'Morning Star', 'Jamaica 8', and
'Jamaica 10'.
'Tikal', a
recent seedling selection, seems very
promising. It is light-brown, elliptic to conical, much smaller than
'Prolific', but of excellent flavor and comes into season very early.
Several cultivars not recommended because of low yield in southern
Florida are 'Addley',
'Adelaide', 'Big Pine Key', 'Black', 'Jamaica No.
4', 'Jamaica No. 5', 'Martin' and 'Saunders'.
In 1951, in Jamaica, I
visited an English gentleman who had a very special sapodilla tree
which bore great quantities of tiny sapodillas, no more than 1 1/2 in
(4 cm) in diameter. They were all seedless and he served them chilled,
whole.
In the Philippines, selected cultivars, 'Ponderosa', 'Java',
'Sao Manila', 'Native', 'Formosa', 'Rangel', and the 'Prolific' from
Florida are maintained by the Bureau of Plant Industry for propagation
and distribution to farmers. 'Sao
Manila' fruits mature in 190 days and
ripen 3 to 5 days after picking.
Hybridization studies have been conducted in India.
Climate
The
sapodilla grows from sea level to 1,500 ft (457 m) in the Philippines,
up to 4,000 ft (1,220 m) in India, to 3,937 ft (1,200 in) in Venezuela,
and is common around Quito, Ecuador, at 9,186 ft (2,800 m). It is not
strictly tropical, for mature trees can withstand temperatures of
26º to 28º F (-3.33º to -2.2º C)
for several hours.
Young trees are tenderer and apt to be killed by 30º F
(-1.11º C) unless the stem is banked with sand or wrapped with
straw and burlap during the cold spell. A number of sapodilia trees
have lived for a few years in California without fruiting and then have
succumbed to cold. Cool nights are considered a constant limiting
factor. However, I have learned of one tree in a protected location in
the Sacramento Valley that has survived for many years, reaching a
large size and fruiting regularly. The sapodilla seems equally at home
in humid and relatively dry atmospheres.
Soil
The
sapodilla grows naturally in the calcareous marl and disintegrated
limestone of its homeland, therefore it should not be surprising that
it is so well adapted to southern Florida and the Florida Keys.
Nevertheless, it flourishes also in deep, loose, organic soil, or on
light clay, diabase, sand or lateritic gravel. Good drainage is
essential, the tree bearing poorly in low, wet locations. It is highly
drought-resistant, can stand salt spray, and approaches the date palm
in its tolerance of soil salinity, rated as ECe 14.20.
Propagation
Seeds
remain viable for several years if kept dry. The best seeds are large
ones from large fruits. They germinate readily but growth is slow and
the trees take 5 to 8 years to bear. Since there is great variation in
the form, quality and yield of fruits from seedling trees, vegetative
propagation has long been considered desirable but has been hampered by
the gummy latex.
In India, several methods are practiced: grafting,
inarching, ground-layering and air-layering. Grafts have been
successful on several rootstocks: sapodilla, Bassia latifolia, B.
longifolia, Sideroxylon dulcificum and Mimusops hexandra.
The last has
been particularly successful, the grafts growing vigorously and
fruiting heavily.
In Florida, shield-budding, cleft-grafting and
side-grafting were moderately successful but too slow for large-scale
production. An improved method of side-grafting was developed using
year-old seedlings with stems 1/4 in (6 mm) thick. The scion (young
terminal shoot) was prepared 6 weeks to several months in advance by
girdling and defoliating. Just before grafting the rootstock was scored
just above the grafting site and the latex "bled" for several minutes.
After the stock was notched and the scion set in, it was bound with
rubber and given a protective coating of wax or asphalt. The scion
started growing in 30 days and the rootstock was then beheaded. Some
years later, further experiments showed that better results were
obtained by omitting the pre-conditioning of the scion and the bleeding
of the latex. The operator must work fast and clean his knife
frequently. The scions are veneer-grafted and then completely covered
with plastic, allowing free gas exchange while preventing dehydration.
Success is deemed most dependent on season: the 2 or 3 months of late
summer and early fall.
In the Philippines, terminal shoots are
completely defoliated 2 to 3 weeks before grafting onto rootstock which
has been kept in partial shade for 2 months. However, inarching is
there considered superior to grafting, giving a greater percentage of
success. Homeowners often find air-layering easier and more successful
than grafting, and air-layered trees often begin bearing within 2 years
after planting.
In India, 50% success has been realized in
top-working 20-year-old trees--cutting back to 3 1/2 ft (1 m) from the
ground and inserting scions of superior cultivars.
Culture
Seedlings for grafting are best grown in full
sun, kept moist and fertilized with 8-4-8 N P K every 45 days.
Trees set out in commercial groves should be spaced 30 to 45 ft (9-13.5
m) apart each way.
In
India, the plants are placed in deep, pre-fertilized pits and manured
twice a year, sometimes with the addition of castor bean meal or
residue of neem seed (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.), wood ash and/or
ammonium sulfate. In an experiment at Marathwada Agricultural
University, Parbhani, India, with 8-year-old trees planted at 12 m,
application of 28 oz (800 g) N/tree increased trunk size and number and
weight of fruits. Combined application of this amount of N plus 6 1/4
oz (176 g) P and 5 3/4 oz (166 g) K/tree gave the highest fruit yield.
Fertilizer experiments over a period of 25 years at Gujarat
Agricultural University revealed that N alone increases yield by 70%, a
combination of N and P elevates yield by 90%, and combined N and K,
128%, over that of control (unfertilized) trees. Of course, optimum
nutrient formulas depend on the character of the soil. In South
Florida's limestone a mixed fertilizer of N, P, K, Mg in a 4-7-5-3
ratio is recommended in spring, summer and fall.
Most mature
sapodilla trees receive no watering, but irrigation in dry seasons will
increase productivity. In some parts of India, brackish or saline water
is sometimes used to reduce vegetative growth and promote fruiting.
Season
The
fruits mature 4 to 6 months after flowering. In the tropics, some
cultivars bear almost continuously. In India, the main season is from
December to March. The trees bear from May to September in Florida,
with the peak of the crop in June and July. In Mexico, there are two
peak seasons: February-April and October-December.
Harvesting
Most
people find it difficult to tell when a sapodilla is ready to pick.
With types that shed much of the "sand" on maturity, it is relatively
easy to observe the slight yellow or peach color of the ripe skin, but
with other types it is necessary to rub the scurf to see if it loosens
readily and then scratch the fruit to make sure the skin is not green
beneath the scurf. If the skin is brown and the fruit separates from
the stem easily without leaking of the latex, it is fully mature though
still hard and must be kept at room temperature for a few days to
soften. It is best to wash off the sandy scurf before putting the fruit
aside to ripen. It should be eaten when firm-soft, not mushy.
In the
Bahamas, children bury their "dillies" in potholes in the limestone to
ripen, or the fruits may be wrapped in sweaters or other thick material
and put in drawers to hasten softening. Fruits picked immature will
shrivel as they soften and will be of inferior quality, sometimes with
small pockets of gummy latex.
In commercial groves, it is judged
that when a few fruits have softened and fallen from the tree, all the
full-grown fruits may be harvested for marketing. If in any doubt, the
grower should cut open a few fruits to make sure the seeds are black
(or very dark-brown). Pickers should use clippers or picking poles with
bag and sharp notch at the peak of the metal frame to cut the fruit
stem.
In India, the fruits are spread out in the shade to allow any
latex at the stem end to dry before packing. The fruits ship well with
minimal packing.
Yield
The
'Prolific' sapodilla yields 6 to 9 bushels per tree annually; or, 200
to 450 lbs (90 to 180 kg). 'Brown Sugar' yields 5 to 8 bushels. In
India, it is said that a productive tree will bear 1,000 fruits in its
10th year and the yield increases steadily. At 30-35 years of age, the
tree should produce 2,500 to 3,000 fruits annually. A great deal
depends on the cultivar. A 10-year-old 'Oval' tree gave 1,158 fruits
weighing 184 lbs (128.8 kg), while a 10-year-old 'Cricket Ball' bore
353 fruits weighing 112 lbs (50 kg). Hand-pollination has been found to
increase fruit set.
Keeping Quality and Storage
Mature,
hard sapodillas will ripen in 9 to 10 days and rot in 2 weeks at normal
summer temperature and relative humidity. More than 50 years ago,
sapodillas were shipped from Java to Holland, held at
40º-50º
F (4.44-10º C) for 3 days, and they ripened satisfactorily
after
arrival. They were smoked over burning straw for a few hours before
packing. Storage trials in Malaya demonstrated that mature, hard
sapodillas stored at 68º F (20º C) win ripen in 10
days and
remain in good condition for another 5 days. In Venezuela, mature
fruits held at 68º F (20º C) and 90% relative
humidity were
in excellent condition at the end of 23 days. Lower temperatures, in
efforts to prolong storage life, seriously retard ripening and lower
fruit quality.
Low relative humidity causes shriveling and
wrinkling. Humid conditions promote sogginess. If long storage is
necessary, the fruits may be kept at 59º-68º F
(15º-20º C) in a controlled atmosphere of 85-90%
relative
humidity, 5-10% (v/v) CO2,with total removal Of C2H4 to delay ripening.
Firm-ripe
sapodillas may be kept for several days in good condition in the home
refrigerator. At 35º F (1.67º C), they can be kept
for 6
weeks. Fully ripe fruits frozen at 32º F (0º C) keep
perfectly for 33 days.
Pests and Diseases
In
general, the sapodilla tree remains supremely healthy with little or no
care. In India, it is sometimes attacked by a bark-borer, Indarbela
(Arbela)
tetraonis. Mealybugs may infest tender shoots and deface the
fruits. A galechid caterpillar (Anarsia)
has caused flower buds and
flowers to dry up and fall.
In Indonesia, caterpillars of Tarsolepis
remicauda may completely defoliate the tree. A caterpillar, Nephopteryx
engraphella, feeds on the leaves, flower buds and young fruits in parts
of India. The ripening and overripe fruits are favorite hosts of the
Mediterranean, Caribbean, Mexican and other fruit flies.
Various
scales, including Howardia
biclavis, Pulvinaria (or Chloropulvinaria)
psidii, Rastrococcus iceryoides, and pustule scale, Asterolecanium
pustulans Ckll., may lead to black sooty mold caused by
the fungus
Capnodium
sp. on stems, foliage and fruits. In some years, during
winter and spring in Florida, a rust (possibly Uredo sapotae) may
affect the foliage of some cultivars. A leaf spot (Septoria sp.) has
caused defoliation in a few locations. The moth of a leaf miner
(Acrocercops gemoniella)
is active on young leaves. Other minor enemies
have been occasionally observed.
In India, it may be necessary to spread nets over the tree to protect
the fruits from fruit bats.
Food Uses
Generally,
the ripe sapodilla, unchilled or preferably chilled, is merely cut in
half and the flesh is eaten with a spoon. It is an ideal dessert fruit
as the skin, which is not eaten, remains firm enough to serve as a
"shell". Care must be taken not to swallow a seed, as the protruding
hook might cause lodging in the throat. The flesh, of course, may be
scooped out and added to fruit cups or salads. A dessert sauce is made
by peeling and seeding ripe sapodillas, pressing the flesh through a
colander, adding orange juice, and topping with whipped cream.
Sapodilla flesh may also be blended into an egg custard mix before
baking.
It was long proclaimed that the fruit could not be cooked or
preserved in any way, but it is sometimes fried in Indonesia and, in
Malaya, is stewed with lime juice or ginger. I found that Bahamians
often crush the ripe fruits, strain, boil and preserve the juice as a
sirup. They also add mashed sapodilla pulp to pancake batter and to
ordinary bread mix before baking.
My own experiments showed that a
fine jam could be made by peeling and stewing cut-up ripe fruits in
water and skimming off a green scum that rises to the surface and
appears to be dissolved latex, then adding sugar to improve texture and
sour orange juice and a strip of peel to offset the increased
sweetness. Skimming until all latex scum is gone is the only way to
avoid gumminess. Cooking with sugar changes the brown color of the
flesh to a pleasing red.
One lady in Florida developed a recipe for
sapodilla pie. She peeled the ripe fruits, cut them into pieces as
apples are cut, and filled the raw lower crust, sprinkled 1/2 cup of
raisins over the fruit, poured over evenly 1/2 cup of 50-50 lime and
lemon juice to prevent the sapodilla pieces from becoming rubbery, and
then sprinkled evenly 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. After covering with
the top crust and making a center hole to release steam, she baked for
40 minutes at 350º F (176.67º C). In India, it has
been shown
that ripe fruits can be peeled and sliced, packed in metal cans, heated
for 10 minutes at 158º F (70º C), then treated for 6
minutes
at a vacuum of 28 in Hg, vacuum double-seamed, and irradiated with a
total dose of 4 x 105 rads at room temperature. This process provides
an acceptable canned product.
Ripe sapodillas have been successfully
dried by pretreatment with a 60% sugar solution and osmotic dehydration
for 5 hours, and the product has retained acceptable quality for 2
months.
Mr. Edward Smith of Crescent Place, Trinidad, made sapodilla
wine and told me that it was very good. Young leafy shoots are eaten
raw or steamed with rice in Indonesia, after washing to eliminate the
sticky sap.
Food Value
Immature
sapodillas are rich in tannin (proanthocyanadins) and very astringent.
Ripening eliminates the tannin except for a low level remaining in the
skin.
Analyses of 9 selections of sapodillas from southern Mexico
showed great variation in total soluble solids, sugars and ascorbic
acid content. Unfortunately, the fruits were not peeled and therefore
the results show abnormal amounts of tannin contributed by the skin.
Moisture
ranged from 69.0 to 75.7%; ascorbic acid from 8.9 to 41.4 mg/100 g;
total acid, 0.09 to 0.15%; pH, 5.0 to 5.3; total soluble solids,
17.4º to 23.7º Brix; as for carbohydrates, glucose
ranged
from 5.84 to 9.23%, fructose, 4.47 to 7.13%, sucrose, 1.48 to 8.75%,
total sugars, 11.14 to 20.43%, starch, 2.98 to 6.40%. Tannin content,
because of the skins, varied from 3.16 to 6.45%.
Toxicity
The
seed kernel (50% of the whole seed) contains 1% saponin and 0.08% of a
bitter principle, sapotinin. Ingestion of more than 6 seeds causes
abdominal pain and vomiting.
Other Uses
Chicle:
A major by-product of the sapodilla tree is the gummy latex called
"chicle", containing 15% rubber and 38% resin. For many years it has
been employed as the chief ingredient in chewing gum but it is now in
some degree diluted or replaced by latex from other species and by
synthetic gums.
Chicle is tasteless and harmless and is obtained by
repeated tapping of wild and cultivated trees in Yucatan, Belize and
Guatemala. It is coagulated by stirring over low fires, then poured
into molds to form blocks for export. Processing consists of drying,
melting, elimination of foreign matter, combining with other gums and
resins, sweeteners and flavoring, then rolling into sheets and cutting
into desired units.
The dried latex was chewed by the Mayas and was
introduced into the United States by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana
about 1866 while he was on Staten Island awaiting clearance to enter
this country. He had a supply in his pocket for chewing and gave a
piece to the son of Thomas Adams. The latter at first considered the
possibility of using it to make dentures, then decided it was useful
only as a masticatory. He found he could easily incorporate flavoring
and thus soon launched the chicle-based chewing-gum industry. In 1930,
at the peak of production, nearly 14,000,000 lbs (6,363,636 kg) of
chicle were imported.
Efforts have been made to extract chicle from
the leaves and unripe fruit but the yield is insufficient. It has been
estimated that 3,200 leaves would be needed to produce one pound
(0.4535 kg) of gum.
Among miscellaneous uses: the latex is employed
as birdlime, as an adhesive in mending small articles in India; it has
been utilized in dental surgery, and as a substitute for gutta percha.
The Aztecs used it for modeling figurines.
Timber:
Sapodilla wood is
strong and durable and timbers which formed lintels and supporting
beams in Mayan temples have been found intact in the ruins. It has also
been used for railway crossties, flooring, native carts, tool handles,
shuttles and rulers. The red heartwood is valued for archer's bows,
furniture, bannisters, and cabinetwork but the sawdust irritates the
nostrils. Felling of the tree is prohibited in Yucatan because of its
value as a source of chicle.
Bark: The tannin-rich bark is used by Philippine fishermen to tint
their sails and fishing lines.
Medicinal
Uses: Because of the tannin content, young fruits are
boiled and the
decoction taken to stop diarrhea. An infusion of the young fruits and
the flowers is drunk to relieve pulmonary complaints. A decoction of
old, yellowed leaves is drunk as a remedy for coughs, colds and
diarrhea. A "tea" of the bark is regarded as a febrifuge and is said to
halt diarrhea and dysentery. The crushed seeds have a diuretic action
and are claimed to expel bladder and kidney stones. A fluid extract of
the crushed seeds is employed in Yucatan as a sedative and soporific. A
combined decoction of sapodilla and chayote leaves is sweetened and
taken daily to lower blood pressure. A paste of the seeds is applied on
stings and bites from venomous animals. The latex is used in the
tropics as a crude filling for tooth cavities.
|
|