Botany
Hikau-hikauan is a shrub or tree reaching a height of 20 meters or less, with the trunk reaching a maximum diameter of 50 centimeters. Leaves are very thick, leathery, oblong to elliptic-oblong, 4 to 10 centimeters long, 2 to 4 centimeters wide, somewhat pointed at the tip, and tapering to a nearly blunt base. Flower is solitary. Calyx is green, 2.5 to 3 centimeters long, and comprises six segments which are longer than the tube. Petals are six, linear, pink or white, about as long as the calyx- segments. Fruit is hard, rounded-depressed, 3 to 4 centimeters in diameter, surrounded nearly to the middle by the calyx-tube; the persistent lobes are spreading. Seeds are numerous.
Distribution
- Along small tidal streams near the limits of salt or brackish water; rarely on the open beach.
- Occurs in China, India through Malaya to the Moluccas.
Constituents
Bark contains a moderate proportion of tannin.
Parts used
Fruit.
 Uses
Edibility / Culinary
- Fruit, slightly acidic, used as food; also for making vinegar.
- Leaves consumed in certain areas.
Folkloric
Fruit used as poultice in sprains and swellings.
Fermented juice useful in arresting hemorrhage.
Others
- Air roots sued for making wooden soles of women's slippers – "korcho" – an of bottle stoppers.
- Referred to as corktree, because fishermen make fishing net floats out of the pneumatophores.
- Wood also used as firewood.
Studies
• Antimicrobial / Cytotoxicity: Study isolated nine compounds from the fruits of S caseolaris. Screened against a rat glioma C-6 cell line, compounds 1, 2 and 6 were found to show moderate cytotoxic activity and suggests a potential foundation for further chemotaxonomic studies.
• Flavonoids / Antioxidant: Study yielded two flavonoids, luteolin and luteolin 7-O-B-glucoside. Both compounds showed to possess antioxidant activity.
• Antioxidant: Of 57 samples of 32 species tested, the calyces of Sonneratia caseolaris exhibited strong antioxidant activity followed by stamens of S. caseolaris. It also exhibited strong antilipid peroxidation.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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