Botany
Chico is a much-branched tree growing to a
height of 8 meters. Leaves are oblong to narrowly oblong-obovate, 8
to 13 centimeters in length, pointede at both ends. Flowers are hairy outside,
6 to 8 millimeters long and 6-parted. Fruit is brown, fleshy, ovoid to round, 3 to 8
centimeters long, containing 5 or more shiny blackish-brown seeds. Fleshy is brown,
soft, slightly gritty, sweet, and very agreeable in flavor.
Distribution
- Cultivated in most parts of
the Philippines.
- Introduced from tropical America in the early colonial period.
Parts
utilized:
Bark, seeds, fruit.
Constituents
- Leaves contain a bitter principle
alkaloid, sapotin 0.076%, fixed oil 1.45%, etc.
- Fruit also yields sapotin, 0.013%.
- Seeds yield sapotin, saponin, achrassaponin, an alkaloid,
fixed-oil 16-23%, the bitter principle, sapotinine 0.08%, etc.
- Bark contains sapotin, saponin, and tannin 11.8%.
- Gum chicle contains 75% resin, gum (arabin) 10%, calcium oxalate,
sugar, etc.
- Fruit flesh yields saccharose 7%, dextrose 3.7%, and levulose 3.4%.
- 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).
- Phytochemical screening yielded terpenoids, glycosides, and flavonid type compounds.
Properties
- Seeds are aperient, diuretic, tonic, and antipyretic.
- Sapotin considered a 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 West Indies, seeds considered aperient and diuretic; the bark as tonic and febrifuge.
• In Cuba, seed
infusion used as an eyewash.
• In Konkan, fruit soaked in melted butter overnight, considered an excellent preventive for biliousness and febrile attacks.
• In Antilles, astringent fruit used for dysentery.
• 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: 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.
• Lambanog flavoring: 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
• Phytochemical: 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.
• Antimicrobial: Study
of extracts of stem bark and leaves
showed activity against all pathogenic bacteria in the study, including Aspergillus flavus, Vasianfactum sp and Fusarium sp.
• Antibacterial: Study
showed the acetone extract of M. zapota seeds to be bactericidal.
• Antioxidant / Hepatoprotective: Study of cold ethanolic extract of M. zapota leaves
demonstrated significant dose-dependent antioxidant activity. In a carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver damage model in rats, it exhibtice hepatoprotective activity.
• Anti-Tumor: Study of stem bark of M. zapota against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in Swiss albino mice showed significant antitumour activity with increase in survival time and restored hematological parameters.
Caution
!
Seeds contain hydrocyanic acid and should be removed
before eating the fruit.
Availability
Cultivated. |
