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Botany
Sineguelas is a deciduous tree
growing to a height of 5 meters. Trunk is stout, with thick spreading
branches. Leaves are pinnate, 15 to 25 centimeters long. Leaflets occur
in 5 to 9 pairs, oblong-ovate, 5 to 7 centimeters long. Flowers are solitary
or fascicled in the axils of the fallen leaves, reddish, and
3 to 3.5 millimeters long. Fruit is smooth and thin-skinned, oblong or subglobose,
about 2.5 centimeters long, with a fleshy pericarp, yellowish green or
dark-purplish outside, with a large and stony seed. When ripe,
the seed is surrounded by a soft, sweet, and aromatic juicy pulp.
Distribution
- Cultivated for
its edible fruit throughout the Philippines.
- Introduced from tropical America by the Spaniards.
- Now pantropic; naturalized throughout the tropics all over the world.
Constituents
- Mineral content and food values are:
Properties
Fruit is astringent; considered diuretic and antispasmodic.
Shoots are astringent.
Seeds considered toxic.
Parts
utilized
Bark, fruit.
Uses
Edibility
• Fruit has a thin skin and a large seed, surrounded by a soft, sweet, aromatic, and juicy pulp when fully ripe.
Although much eaten, it is not considered a high-quality fruit, with a tendency to cause stomachaches when eaten semi-ripe in large quantities.
• Also used as seasoning for sweets and pickling.
 Folkloric
• Decoction of the bark
used for dysentery and infantile tympanites.
• Sap of the bark is applied to the infants mouth for stomatitis (dapulak).
• Fruit is astringent and useful in diarrhea.
• In Brazil, decoction of bark used
for diarrhea; decoction of flowers and leaves used for constipation
and stomach aches. Decoction of the fruit used for diarrhea, dysentery, gonorrhea.
• The Tikunas Indians of the Amazon
use the decoction of bark for pain and excessive menstrual bleeding,
for stomach pains and diarrhea, and for washing wounds.
• Cubans used the fruit as emetic.
• Haitians use the fruit syrup for
angina.
• Dominicans use it as laxative.
• Bark used for minor skin ulcers.
• Fruit decoction used to bathe wounds.
• Juice of fresh leaves used for thrush.
• Decoction of leaves and bark used as febrifuge.
• Crushed leavews applied as head bath for headaches.
• In the Guianas fruit used as ingredienrt in marmalade laxative.
• In Nigeria, infusion of shredded
leaves used to wash wounds, cuts, sores and burns.
• In Jamaica, leaves are boiled to make a cold remedy; also used for sore gums, diarrhea and dysentery. In Maya medicine, plant used to make baths for skin diseases.
• Resin of tree used with pineapple and soursop for jaundice.
• Amazonian Indians use a daily cup
of decoction for permanent sterility.
• In Guatemala, used for gastrointestinal disorders.
Others
• Fruit used to
remove stains from clothing and for washing hands.
• In the Ecuadorian coastal plain
and Andes, processed into marmalade, wine,
liquor.
• In French Guiana, shoots are considered
astringent. Fruit used as ingredient in laxative marmalade. Seeds considered
toxic.
Studies
• Antimicrobia / Anti-Enterobacteriall: In a study of 84 plants screened for in vitro activity against five enterobacteria pathogenic to man, Spondias purpurea was one of ten plants that showed the best antibacterial activity and provides scientific basis for use in enterobacterial infections in man.
Availability
Cultivated.
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