Phyllanthus acidus - Cermai

Cermai is the fruit of Phyllanthus acidus, also known as Malay gooseberry, is an exotic local fruit of the tropical Asia.  

A cermai tree can grow up to 10 meter in height.  The leaves are ovate, alternates, light green in colour.  The flowers can be male, female or hermaphrodite, small and pinkish in clusters on the branches.  The fruits are pale yellow, waxy, crisp and juicy, with 4 – 6 seeds.

Cermai is cultivated mainly for its fruit, which is very sour, thus seldom consumed fresh.  The cermai fruit is mostly used in cooking, pickled in salt, sweetened and made into syrup.  It is also consumed raw mixed in rojak buah, or pounded with sambal belacan and eaten with rice.    The young leaves can also be eaten as greens 

Rare Fruits of MAHA 2010

Averrhoa bilimbi – Belimbing Buluh

Family : Oxalidaceae

Origin : Moluccas

Uses : eaten fresh ; condiment ; pickled

Carissa carandas – Asam Renda, Kerenda, Kalakai

Family : Apocynaceae

Origin : India

Uses : pickles ; folk medicine for anaemia.

Cynometra cauliflora – Namu-namu, Buah Katak Puru

Family : Fabaceae

Origin : Malesia

Uses : eaten fresh

Diospyros digyna – Black Sapote

Family : Ebenaceae

Origin : Central America

Uses : eaten fresh ; unripe fruit as fish poison.

Diospyros discolour – Buah Mentega

Family : Ebenaceae

Origin : Philippines

Uses : n.a.

Ficus ariculata - Ara

Family : Moraceae

Origin : India

Uses : eaten fresh ; dried. 

Flacourtia jangomas – Rukam Manis

Family : Salicaceae

Origin : India

Uses : eaten fresh ; jam ; folk medicine.

Garcinia prainiana – Cherapu

Family : Clusiaceae

Origin : n.a.

Uses : eaten fresh

Garcinia atrroviridis – Asam Gelugur

Family : Clusiaceae

Origin : Malesia

Uses : spice

Inga edulis – Ice-Cream Bean

Family : Fabaceae

Origin : South America

Uses : n.a.

Myristica fragrans – Buah Pala, Nutmeg

Family : Myristicaceae

Origin : Moluccas

Uses : Spice ; Juiced ; Dried.

Phyllanthus emblica  - Buah Melaka, Indian Gooseberry, Aamla

Family : Phyllanthaceae

Origin : n.a.

Uses : Eaten fresh ; cooked ; pickled ; folk medicine

Pouteria caimito – Abiu

Family : Sapotaceae

Origin : South America

Uses : eaten fresh ; folk medicine for cough, fever, diarrhea, bronchitis etc

Pouteria campechiana  - Canistel

Family : Sapotaceae

Origin : Central America

Uses : eaten fresh.

Rollinia deliciosa - Biriba

Family :  Annonaceae

Origin : South America

Uses : eaten fresh

Sauropus androgynus - Cekur Manis

Synonyms : S. albicans, S. sumatranus, Clutia androgyna.

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Order : Magnoliopsida

Family : Phyllanthaceae

Tribe : Phyllantheae

Surtribe : Flueggeinae

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The genus Sauropus comprises about 40 species.

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Commonly known as star gooseberry, sweet leave, cekur manis (Malay), katuk (Indonesia), Pak wanban (Thai), rau ngót (Vietnamese), 树仔菜, 板面菜 and 马尼菜.

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It’s a perennial herb capable to reach 3 m in height. Stems are multiple, semi-woody, upright, green in colour, about 0.5 cm in diameter. Older stem may become somewhat woody and have slight brownish colour. Leaves are pinnately altenate, ovate. The mature leaves dark green with 5 – 6 cm long, younger shoots tends to be lighter green. Flowers underside of leaves’ petiole, small, 0.5 mm diameter, white to pinkish. Fruits are capsules, white to reddish, with 3 black seeds.

Propagation is by cuttings. Easily propagated and heavy yielding.

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The leaves and shoots are consumed as leafy vegetable.

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Studies shows that the leaf contains 88.32% water, 4.84% protein, 0.19% lipid, 5.36% carbohydrate, and 1.11 fiber ². The leaf also contains b-carotene, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium. It’s among only a few floral containing vitamin K.

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However, studies have suggested that its consumption can cause lung damage, due to its high concentration of papaverine ( 580mg/100g fresh leaf ¹).

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1.P.Padmavathi & M.Prabhakara Rao, 1990, Nutritive Value of Sauropus androgynus Leaves, Plant Food for Human Nutrition 40:107-113.

2. Naruman Benjapak et al, 2008, Determination of Antioxidant Capacity and Nutritive Values of Pak-Wanban, KKU Sci. J. 36(4) 279-289 (2008)

Baccaurea

Baccaurea of family Phyllanthaceae, is a genus of small, dioecious trees. The flowers are borned in clustered spikes. The fruit is a drupe, has a firm, fleshy pericarp, with 1 – 6 large seeds, with juicy sourly endocarp. Several species are edible, and some are cultivated.

There are some 80 species of Baccaurea genus, distributed naturally from India to SE.asia.

Baccaurea angulata- red angle tampoi .

Baccaurea motlyena - rambai

Baccaurea macrocarpa – tampoi