Velvet Apples (Diospyros blancoi)

The tree

Velvet Apple also known as Bisbul (Indonesia), Butter Fruit, Persimmon, Mabolo   (The Philippines) and Kamagong is the Fruit native to The Philippines and now can also be found around South East Asia Region with the scientific name Diospyros blancoi.

The fruit is typically reddish-brown in color, and while it is edible, with creamy, soft flesh, the smell of velvet apples is considered by many people to be unpleasant, commonly compared to the smell of cat feces or rotten cheese.

Characteristics of the tree: 

Tree of Diospyros blancoi A. DC naturally habitat is in Primary Tropical Rainforest and Secondary Rainforest from low to medium altitudes.  It is a evergreen tree, 7-15 m tall, with a conical crown, with trunk diameter about 50 to 80 cm wide. Straight trunked, with black or blackish color, branched, more or less horizontally and terraced, with a conical overall crown that is dense and densely packed with leaves so that it is dark on the inside.

The Flowers

It is a dioecious plant, with separate plants bearing male or female flowers. The urn-shaped male flowers are borne on axillary cymes, in small clusters of 3-7 flowers. The corolla is four-lobed and creamy white in color. The urn-shaped female flowers are similar in appearance to the male flowers, except that they are solitary, and slightly larger than the male flowers. For cultivation you could propagated the tree by seed or grafting.  

Fruit:

Fruit shape is round or flattened round, 5-12 × 8-10 cm, finely hairy like velvet, reddish brown then bright red and then slightly dull when ripe, with a "cap" of flower petals that do not fall off. Flesh is whitish in color, rather hard and dense, rather dry, slightly astringent sweet and smells good; covered with a thin hairy fruit skin. The strong smell is a bit like cheese and durian, for some people it's nauseating, some even say it smells like cat litter. Seeds up to 10 grains, skin brown, wedge-shaped somewhat like a puck, 4 × 2.5 × 1.5 cm (in the thick).

Velvet Apple

According to some credible source Diospyros blancoi A. DC. Known as an evergreen tree species of high-quality wood. Mabolo or Velvet Apple, the fruit of this plant is quite popular around some countries in South East Asia, but its potential in economic use has not been fully explored. Mabolo has a rich aroma. Of the 39 different volatile compounds isolated, its intact fruit and peel were found to both contain 24 compounds, whereas the pulp contained 28 compounds. The most important aroma compounds were esters and α-farnesene. 

Nutritions Value :

The fruit has 60-73% edible portion which contains, per 100 g: water 83.0-84.3 g, protein 2.8 g, fat 0.2 g, carbohydrates 11.8 g, fibre 1.8 g, ash 0.4-0.6 g, calcium 46 mg, phosphorus 18 mg, iron 0.6 mg, vitamin A 35 IU, thiamine 0.02 mg, riboflavin and niacin 0.03 mg, vitamin C 18 mg. The energy value averages 332 kJ/100 g.

Health Benefit:

• Reducing Skin Irritation

Apply the pulp topically to lower inflammation and skin irritation. Apply the pulp and juice on snakebites and other toxic invasions in the body, lower the effects of problems and counteract toxins.

• Hypertension and Heart Health

Velvet apple has potassium which acts as a vasodilator. It relaxes the blood vessels, lowers stress on heart and also blood pressure. The presence of fiber content helps to lower cholesterol. 

• Immune system strength

It is rich in Vitamin A and Vitamin C. These vitamins are antioxidants that can help you to rid of the free radicals that can mutate the healthy cells in cancerous cells. These vitamins also can help you to prevent chronic diseases, prevent premature aging, increase the health and appearance of your skin, and also it can stimulate cellular development and growth.

• Circulation

The presence of meaningful amount of iron stimulates red blood cells amount in the body. It promotes oxygenation of vital tissues and muscles, increases rapidity of therapeutic process of cells, stimulates development of hair and increases metabolic efficiency.

• Reduces physical weakness:

Due to its high nutritional value, Velvet Apple reduces physical weakness. Calcium in Velvet Apple makes bones strong. Guava also plays an important role in controlling blood pressure and diabetes. Reduces the risk of cancer: Relieves constipation due to its high fiber content. It reduces the risk of various intestinal diseases and colon cancer.

Economic Value:

Even though it has such good benefits, it can be consumed directly as a table fruit. But unfortunately, so far there is no global or regional data on the production potential of this fruit.

This fruit is still a 'gift from nature' considering that in Southeast Asia, South Asia to East Asia there is no plantation business management for this plant. This fruit is mostly produced from plants that grow in the forest, the level of cultivation is still very minimal. Maybe even just a home scale.

It would be very difficult to estimate production, but it would be easier if an industry started to develop that specifically manages the cultivation of this plant.

Mabolo can be consumed directly as a fruit. However, the possibility of producing its derivatives is also open. Mabolo can be used as raw material herbal health products, as raw material of fruit syrup and other drinking products, as fruit powder to support other products such as cosmetics, food and others. Lots of potential!

Scientific classification:

• Kingdom : Plantae
• Subkingdom : Tracheobionta
• Superdivision : Spermatophyta
• Division : Magnoliophyta
• Class : Magnoliopsida
• Subclass : Dilleniidae
• Ordo : Ebenales
• Family : Ebenaceae
• Genus : Diospyros
• Spesies : Diospyros blancoi A. DC.  

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Marian Plum - Bouea macrophylla Griffith

Marian Plum is an endemic of South East Asia, and has Scientific name Bouea macrophylla Griffith. Even though it is becoming scarce in its source area, Marian Plum is still well known and has the local names Gandaria or Djatake (Indonesia) and serapoh, kondongan, kundang (Malaysia).

Marian Plum  is a tree of the humid tropics and thrives in light and fertile soil. It occurs naturally in lowland forests below 300 m altitude, but has been successfully cultivated up to elevations of about 850 m.

Tree with clear sap turning black. Stipules absent. Leaves opposite which is rare within the Anacardiaceae, distichous (in one plane along the twig), simple, large, glabrous. Flowers small, placed in small branched inflorescences. Fruits c. 3 cm long, orange-red fleshy drupes.

Characteristics of the tree: 

The tree is medium, but high. The height can reach 25 m with a diameter of 55 cm. The plant canopy is conical or round in shape with dense leaves so it is very suitable for use as a shade plant. The leaves are single and lanceolate to elliptical in shape, the leaves are large with leaves 13-35 cm long and 5-7 cm wide. Plants if grown from seeds will begin to bear fruit at the age of 6-8 years, while if from a connection they will bear fruit 4-5 years later. Naturally, gandaria plants grow to a height of 300 m above sea level. The best growth is in soil with good drainage.

The fruit resembles a round and small mango. The type is like a stone fruit, giving off a thick liquid and a distinctive smell like turpentine. When they are young, they are green in color, and when they are ripe, they are yellow-orange. The seeds are purple, oval-oval to lanceolate or oblong in shape. When young white, then gradually dark purple, then dark green. Fruit length 3-6 cm with a width of 3-4 cm. Seeds 2-5 cm in diameter with bright purple cotyledons. The inflorescences are panicles, the flowers resemble yellow mango flowers, and appear in the axils of the leaves. Flowering in September-December.

Uses

A popular fruit tree with diminutive mango-like fruits. Although generally rather acid even whenfully ripe, the fruit is much consumed fresh, cooked in syrup or made into an excellent compote. However, the use of the young fruits is more important; they serve as ingredient of a special kind of 'sambal', the chilli-based condiment, and in pickles ('asinan'), the bright purple cotyledons in the big seed adding to the attraction of the concoction. Occasionally the young leaves ¡ª which are deep violet, sometimes strikingly white when they emerge ¡ª are also consumed fresh, to be eaten with the gandaria- flavoured 'sambal'. Gandaria is recommended for planting in transmigration areas in Sumatra because of its abundant fruit production and very dense foliage, making it an excellent shade tree. The timber is durable but only used for minor purposes.

Nutritions

According to the Nutrition Division of the Thai Ministry of Health, every 100 grams of Mirian Plump contains:

Water : 86,6 g

Proteins         : 40 mg

Fat         : 20 mg

Carbohydrate         : 11,3 g

Fiber : 150 mg

Niacin : 0,5 mg

Vitamin C : 100 mg

Calcium         : 9 mg

Phosphor         : 4 mg

Iron         : 0,3 mg

Beta carotene         : 23 mg

Thiamine         : 0,11 mg

Riboflavin : 0,05 mg

Economic Potential

We do not yet have complete data on the global production of this fruit, but as far as we know there have been no serious cultivation efforts to develop this plant and produce one or several products that have high economics. Food, drink and health products.

With the nutritional potential as above, do you think that Mirian Plum has a high enough economic potential?

Scientific classification:

Kingdom            :         Plantae

Division            :         Magnoliophyta

Class            :         Magnoliopsida

Order                  :         Sapindales

Family                :         Anacardiaceae

Genus                 :          Boueae

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