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Botany
A very branched tree, growing to a
height of 8 meters. Leaves are oblong to narrowly oblong-obovate, 8
to 13 cm in length, pointede at both ends. Flowers are hairy outside,
8 mm long and 6-parted. Fruit is brown, fleshy, ovoid to round, 3-8
cm long, containing 5 or more shiny brown-black seeds. Fleshy is brown,
soft, slightly gritty, and sweet.
Distribution
Cultivated in most parts of
the Philippines.
Parts
utilized:
Bark, seeds, fruit.
Chemical
constituents and properties
Leaves contain a bitter principle
alkaloid and fixed oil.
Fruit also contains sapotin.
The seeds yield sapotin, saponin, achrassaponin, an alkaloid,
fixed-oil 16-23%, the bitter principle sapotinine 0.08%.
The bark contains sapotin, saponin, and tannin.
Gum chicle contains 75% resin, gum (arabin) 10%, calcium oxalate,
sugar, etc.
Seeds are aperient, diuretic and antipyretic.
Chemical composition analysis of sapota juice showed it to be a rich
source of sugars, proteins, vitamin C, phenolics, carotenoids and minerals
(iron, copper, zinc, calcium and potassium).
Plant is a source of sapotin, a glucoside, used as febrifuge.
Uses
Folkloric
• Decoction of the bark used
for diarrhea and fever.
• Fruit soaked in melted butter overnight, is thought to be preventive
for biliousness and fevers.
• Seed kernel oil used as skin ointment and as dressing for falling
hair.
• In Mexico, used
for kidney stones and rheumatism.
• In Cuba, seed
infusion used as an eyewash.
• Leaf decoction used for fever, hemorrhage, wounds and ulcers.
• For neuralgia, leaf with tallow or oil, applied as compress
to the temples.
• Seeds used for fever; when ground with water, acts as diuretic.
• In Indonesia,
flowers are one of the ingredients in a powder rubbed on the woman's
body after childbirth.
• In Cambodia, tannin
from the bark used for diarrhea and fever.
Others
• Bark is used for tanning sails and making fish tackle.
• Gum
chicle, derived from the bark juice, is used in the manufacture of chewing
gum. Gum chicle is also used for transmission belts, dental surgery,
and a substitute for gutta-percha.
•The fruit is also a popularly used in the aging of the coconut
liquer, lambanog.
Related
additional
info
Latex is tapped only if the sapodilla is at least 20
to 25 years old. Each tapping yields only 21/2 pounds of gum over a
period of six hours; and trees are tapped only once in three or four
years. (The Story of Chewing
Gum)
Studies
• Triterpenoids,
achras sapota, saponins, cotyledons, terpenes, tepenoids, non-polar
extracts: Study isolated 14 triterpenoids and five triterpenoidal
saponins.
• Triterpenoid saponin / Antimibacterial:
Study isolated a new pentacyclic triterpenoids saponin along with one
known from the cotyledons of Achras sapota. Compound 2 showed antibacterial
activity against Gram positive and negative bacteria.
• Antioxidant: Study
showed zapota juice to have multiple radical-scavenging potential due
to its nutraceutical components, viz., phenolics carotenoids and ascorbic
acid.
Caution
!
Seeds contain hydrocyanic acid and should be removed
before eating the fruit.
Availability
Cultivated. |
