Botany
Caimito is a tree with a spreading
crown, growing to a height of 15 meters. Branches are numerous and slender, the
young tips are copper-collored and covered with appressed hairs. Leaves are leathery,
ovate or oblong, 7.5 to 13 centimeters long, pointed at the tip, blunt or rounded at the base and covered underneath with silky,
golden-brown, soft hairs. Flowers are purplish-white, small and clustered
in the axils of leaves, with 5 sepals, and a tubular corolla with 5 lobes. Fruit is large and rounded, 6 to 10 centimeters in
diameter, shiny and smooth, purplish or light-green skin, with a
translucent whitish or purplish, soft pulp surrounding flatterned seeds about
1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The flesh, containined a small amount of milky juice, is somewhat fibrous, sweet, mild and pleasant tasting.
 Distribution
- Cultivated for its edible
fruit and as an ornamental tree.
- Recently introduced from tropical America.
Constituents
- Seed contains saponin,
0.19%; pouterin, 0.0037%; a bitter principle (lucumin), 1.2%; a fixed oil, 6.6%; and dextrose, 2.4%.
- Leaves contain an amorphous bitter principle, some alkaloids, and no
saponin.
- Bark is rich in tannin.
- Analysis for volatile constituents yielded 104 compounds in the aroma concentrate. Major constituents were: (E)-2-hexenal, 1-hexanol, limonene, linalool, α-copaene and hexadecanoic acid.
Properties
- Seed is tonic, diuretic and febrifuge.
- Pectoral, tonic, stimulant.
Parts used
Seeds, leaves, bark, fruit.
Uses
Folkloric
• In Mexico, decoction
of the bark given for dysentery.
• In Costa Rica, infusion of bark is tonic and refreshing.
• Tonic: Infusion of the bark is tonic and refreshing.
• Latex is used for abscesses.
• Dried latex used as antihelminthic.
• In some countries, the fruit is used for diabetes.
• Bitter seed sometimes used as tonic, for diarrhea and fevers.
• Fruit eaten for inflammation in laryngitis and pneumonia.
• Used for diabetes.
• Decoction used for angina.
• In the Ivory Coast, decoction of leaves used for hypertension. Leaf decoction also used for diabetes.
• In Venezuela, unripe fruit used
for intestinal problems.
• In Puerto Rico, fruit used in treatment of diabetes.
• Decoction of bark used as tonic and stimulant; used for diarrhea,
dysentery, hemorrhages and treatment of gonorrhea.
• Cubans in Miami reported to use
the leaf decoction for cancer treatment.
• In Brazil, bark latex used resolutive on abscesses;
and as a potent vermifuge when dried and powdered.
Studies
• Antioxidant:
(1) Polyphenolic Antioxidants from the Fruits of Chrysophyllum cainito:
A study on fruit extracts yielded nine known phenolic antioxidants.
(2) Study of extracts of 12 edible fruits showed nine to exhibit
high antioxidant activity; C cainito yielded cyanidin-3-O-ß-glucopyranoside,
an anthocyaninc antioxidant.
• Vasorelaxant: A preliminary
study on the relaxant effect of the crude extract and fractions of the
bark of Chrysophyllum cainito L. in isolated rat thoracic aorta:
Methanolic bark extract study on rats showed vasorelaxant activity on
the smooth muscle.
• Lectin Activity: Plant
samples of 178 species and 62 families were studied for lectin activity.
Potent lectins possessing more than 100,000 unites per gram were found
in the fruits extracts of C arabica and Chrysophyllum cainito.
• Antidiabetic Activity: Study of the aqueous decoction of C cainito leaves showed hypoglycemic activity at doses of ≥ 20 g/l. From 30 g/l, the plant would exert a toxic effect.
• Hypotensive Effect: Phytochemical study attributes the hypotensive effect flavonoids with vasodilation effect and inhibition of adrenergic receptors.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated for its edible fruit.
Seasonal market produce.
Tinctures of bark, leaves and fruits in the cybermarket. |
