Tropical Fruits and Its Value

Nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans) is a fruit tree belonging to the genus Myristica. The most important species of the genus Myristica is Myristica fragrans  (Nutmeg), this tree is believed to originate from Maluku (Moluccas) Islands, especially Banda Island, who is now a part of the territory of Indonesia. Since the first, Nutmeg has become important spice and essential commodities; it is said even since the days of the Roman Empire. Nutmeg is mentioned in the "Old" a Pliny encyclopedia, that life in Roman Empire times. European explorers are those who spread these tropical trees to other parts of Africa such as Mauritius, to Grenada in the Caribbean and several other Latin American countries. Tree characteristics: Nutmeg tree has a height of 4-15 meters and are unisex (dioecious), trees only produce only male or female flowers. Therefore, usually a male tree planted among 10 female trees. However, sources says that there is a tree that produces both male an...

A glass of hot chocolate drink served at your table in the morning, perhaps accompanied by a slice of cake made with one of the ingredients that is derived from chocolate as well. You may not realize that cocoa powder that brewed into that delicious drink, come to your desk after  following a long process and pass through various stages of cultivation and production as well as a long trade chain. Yes, a glass of chocolate and a slice of brown bread that you enjoy it, comes from a plant that originally grew at the foot of the Andes Mountains,  in the Amazon and Orinoco valley in South America.  Today the plant  known as the Cocoa Tree (Theobroma cacao) that it is spreading throughout the tropics regions worldwide as a cultivated plant that has a high economic potential. Characteristic of the tree: Cocoa classified into plants  groups of caulifloris (the plants that flowering and fruiting on the trunk and branches),  including the genus of Th...

Spondias dulcis or Ambrella or Kedondong ( Malaysia and Indonesia ), is another kind of  typical  tropical fruit  that, but not well known in other parts of the world. The  fruit is green when young and becoming  yellow  when old  with a sweet  sour  taste, well known in many countries both in equatorial Asia, and Latin America. Plant characteristics: Kedondong  included in the Angiospermae, this fast-growing tree can reach up to 60 ft (18 m) in its native area of grow.  Has a woody stem (lignosus) the form usually loud and strong, rounded shape trunk and grows upright, surface smooth stems and greenish white, single root as usual in woody trees. This plant included to the compound-leaved plants, the widest part is in the middle of the leaf blade elliptic (ovalis), tapered leaf base (acutus), tapered leaf tip (acuminatus), green leaf color with leaves 5-8 cm long and width of 3-6 cm. Viewed from the direction of t...

Baccaurea racemosa Baccaurea racemosa is a kind of tropical tree fruit that South East Asia endemic especially Indonesia, that now in threatened with extinction, the fruit of this plant named Baccaurea javanica (Menteng) .  From outside appearance, this fruit is very similar to Duku . However, the taste and its proximity botanically differ significantly. Round-shaped fruit with a brownish-yellow color when ripe and yellowish green when young, this fruit is not really a favorite even in the region of origin, perhaps because of the sour fruit flavors with just a hint of sweetness. This fruit have some local names,   Indonesia: Menteng,  Kisip, Roesip, Kemundung, Kepunung, Engkumi, Kayu masam, Kokonau, Kunau, Kunyi, Longkumo, Moho liox, Tunding undang, Umbarian. Malaysia:  Asam tambun, Rambi, Tamut, or Tampoi. Naturally, Baccaurea racemosa is a forest plant and grow wildly.  Their natural habitat is in danger, especially for those that grow in...

Malay gooseberry  Otaheite gooseberry or Malay gooseberry or Acidus Phyllanthus fruit is the fruit produced by  a  tropical and sub-tropical plant which has the same name, this plant believed to originate from Madagascar or India. This tree is classified into shrubs,  maximum high can be 9 up to 10 m. This taste of this fruit is very sour, in some southeast Asian tropical countries, although not  really popular, the fruit used as fresher  food, eaten fresh or processed into a similar kind of sweets and spicy salad. So far there is no large-scale cultivation of the fruit is. This tree just planted as a shade plant in the yard or garden. In addition to fruit in Indonesia and Malaysia the leaves of this tree is also used as fresh vegetables even if only used on a limited basis. Characteristics of the tree: Shrubs or small trees with a height of up to 9-10 m, branching low and tenuous,  grow well at altitudes up to 1000 asl, many branching, and th...

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is the name of a type of tree and its fruit at all. Breadfruit does not have seeds and has a padded section, which is similar to the bread after it is cooked or fried. Because of this, the Europeans know it as "bread fruit.”  Artocarpus altilis This plant is Polynesia origin, then spread to the South East Asia region.  Now, breadfruit is an important food source of carbohydrates in the various islands in the tropics, especially in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.  Breadfruit can be cooked in different ways: boiled, fried, roasted, or grilled. To make it durable and stored longer, cooked fruit is sliced and dried in the sun or in a furnace.  In Pacific islands, the excess harvest breadfruit will be buried in holes in the ground and allowed to ferment a few weeks away, so it turns into a paste like cheese lasting, nutritious and can be made into a kind of baked cake.  Characteristics of the tree: Breadfruit tree is bas...

Cashew Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a plant from the Anacardiaceae tribe, originally from Brazil. In botany, the plant was not a member of the  guava group (Myrtaceae) or legumes (Fabaceae), but actually more closely related to the mango (Anacardiaceae tribe).  As a fruit, Cashew is unique, because the seed is not located inside, but located outside of the flesh. The seed protected by thick and hard outer skin, what commonly known as cashew fruits (flesh) actually only a pseudo fruit, the “fruit of cashew” only functioned as nutrition supplier to the seed. And then what we knows as Cashew Nut actually  is the core of the fruit, after going through several treatment processes. What is commonly known as the "fruit", actually is the flower base (Receptaculum) which expands after conception. This flower base is green or yellow when young and then turn into red, old yellow or reddish yellow when old / ripe. The main producer of this agro commodity are Nige...

Coffee (Coffea) , almost people entire the world love to drink coffee, from ordinary coffee drinker up to crazy coffee lover. However, did you know that coffee drink which is made from a seed of plant scientifically identified as Coffea species and have two major varieties named Arabica Coffee and Robusta Coffee originally come from Ethiopia about 1000 BC? Yes, this exotic drink has a long history before come up to our table in the morning as a first friend that comes to us in the morning. Some expert of coffee said that since 800 BC, people of Africa especially Ethiopia already enjoyed coffee; they mix coffee seeds with wine and animal fats to fulfill their protein and energy for the body.  From Ethiopia, hundreds years after enjoyed by Ethiopian then bring to Arab, Arab peoples then proceed coffee seeds better than the Africans proceed. They not only cooked the seeds, but also then take the quintessence of coffee, used it as the raw of a kind of drink as now we recognized...

Soursop (Annona muricata L.) is a useful plant origin of the Caribbean, Central America and South America.  But known that Graviola has also been long recognized in Africa, especially in Somalia, Mozambique and Uganda. Currently the plant has also been a part of the "traditional" plant in some Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Utilization was already happening in a broad scope ranging from fruit to leaves, fruit utilized as a food ingredient and the leaves used as part of herbal medicine. Annona muricata L. This plant can be grown in any place especially in tropical lands, but the best is if planted in an area that is quite watery. Soursop fruit is not true, because the so-called "fruit" is actually a collection of the fruits (fruit aggregate) with a single seed and losing limits coincide between pieces. Soursop size is large enough, can reach up to 20-30cm long and weigh up to 2.5 kg. Soursop fruit flesh is white and has b...