Garcinia dulcis

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The orange coloured fruits can be eaten fresh; they contain a sour, juicy pulp, which can be preserved into jam. Green dye can be obtained from the bark, when mixed with indigo it gives a brown colour which is used to dye mats. From the unripe fruits a yellow dye, called gamboge, can be extracted, but is considered inferior to other dyes from members of the same genus like Garcinia xanthochymus. Garcinia dulcis also has medicinal purposes; it can be used for the treatment of wounds or scurvy. Testing on rats has indicated that the fruit's rind could have use as a treatment for metabolic syndrome.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It suits the hot, wet tropical lowlands. They are common and widely distributed in the Philippines from northern Luzon to the southern part growing in primary forest at low and medium altitudes. It grows in coastal areas up to 500 m altitude. It is not particular as regards soil.

Asia, Australia, Colombia, Cuba, Fiji, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Philippines*, SE Asia, South America, Suriname, Thailand, West Indies,

How to Identify

A bushy tree up to 10-20 m high. It spreads 2-4 m wide. It has a short trunk. It has 4 angled yellow drooping branches. It has large leathery leaves 10-30 cm long and 4-14 cm wide. The leaves are opposite, smooth and somewhat oval in shape. Young leaves are pale green and older leaves are dark green. The leaves are shiny above and often hairy underneath. The leaf stalk is 2 cm long. Male and female flowers are separate. The flowers are white or greenish yellow and borne in small rounded clusters. Male flowers are very small. The flowers have a sour smell. The fruit is smooth, yellow and the size of a small orange but with a point at the end. It is 5-8 cm wide. It has a thin skin and 1 to 5 seeds inside. These are brown and 2.5 cm long. The pulp is yellow.

Nutrition Score: 21/100

How to Grow

Trees are grown from seed. Seed need to be sown while fresh. Trees can be budded or grafted. Shield budding on fairly mature wood using large buds is best.

Propagation: Seed - we have no specific information on this species, but the seed of most members of the genus can be slow to germinate, even if sown fresh, often taking 6 months or more.

Medicinal Uses

The crushed extract of the fruit is used as a relief expectorant, for coughs, and scurvy. The crushed extract from the root is used for the relief of fever, and to reduce poisoning and detoxification. The crushed extract from the bark is used for cleaning wounds. The oily seeds are used as a remedy for dysentery and chronic diarrhoea. The pounded seeds are applied to cure swellings.

Other Uses

A green dye can be obtained from the bark, when mixed with indigo it gives a brown colour. The bark is used to dye mats. A yellow dye can be obtained from the resin in the unripe fruits. Called gamboge, it is inferior to gamboge obtained from other members of the genus, including Garcinia xanthochymus. Gamboge is a gum-resin which is obtained from the bark, branches and fruits of several species in the genus Garcinia. It contains around 70 - 80% resin with 15 - 25% gum and is used primarily as a pigment, being used to dye cloth (the yellow silken robes of Buddhist monks are often dyed with it), as well as supplying a golden-yellow colouring to varnishes, lacquers, paints, ink, water colours etc. The wood is moderately hard.

Garcinia dulcis is a tropical fruit tree native to the Philippines, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, eastern Indonesia (Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and the Maluku Islands), New Guinea and Queensland. It was domesticated early and spread inland into mainland Asia. It is commonly known as mundu or munu in Indonesia and Malaysia, baniti or taklang-anak in the Philippines, and maphuut or ma phut in Thailand. In English, it is sometimes known as yellow mangosteen, although that name is used for several other species as well. The tree is harvested from the wild as a local source of food, medicine or dyeing material and is sometimes cultivated for its fruit, which is occasionally sold locally. Garcinia dulcis is not grown commercially.

Production

Fruit production is seasonal about Dec to May in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other Information

At present not commonly planted in Papua New Guinea.

Notes

There are about 300 Garcinia species.

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