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Citron

Citron
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Botanical Name:Citrus medica L.
Family: Rutaceae
Sub-family: Aurantioideae.
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Sapindales
Genus: Citrus
Species: C. medica
Common Names: Citron,Citron Melon,Preserving Melon,Stock Melon,Corsican Citron,Diamante Citron,Ethrog,Leghorn Citron

Other Names:Media, Median Apple,Persia or Assyria. The citron has many similar names in diverse languages, e.g. cederat, cedro, etc. Most confusing are the Czech, French, Dutch, Yiddish and Scandinavian languages, in which the false friend “citron” refers to the fruit which is called lemon in English. The French name for citron is “cédrat”.

Habitat:The Citron’s place of origin is unknown but seeds were found in Mesopotamian excavations dating back to 4000 B.C.
Spaniards probably brought the Citron with other Citrus species to St. Augustine in Florida but it survived there only in greenhouses. Today the Citron is grown in southern Florida only occasionally as a curiosity. Citron trees are not uncommon in some of the Pacific Islands but are rare in the Philippines.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates.)

Description:-
Citron is a slow-growing shrub or small tree reaching up to 15 ft (4.5 m) in height with stiff branches and twigs and spines in the leaf axils.
The evergreen leaflets are leathery, lemon-scented, ovate-lanceolate or ovate elliptic. The flower buds are large and white or purplish. The fragrant flowers have 4 to 5 petals and they are pinkish or purplish with 30 to 60 stamens. The fruit is fragrant, oblong or oval and very variable even on the same branch. The peel is yellow, usually rough and bumpy and very thick. The pulp is pale-yellow or greenish divided into as many as 14 or 15 segments, firm, not very juicy, acid or sweet and contains numerous seeds.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates.)

........

Cultivation and uses:-
The citron fruit is slow-growing. The citron tree is typically grown from cuttings that are two to four years old; the tree begins to bear fruit when it is around three years old. The fruit is oblong in shape, and sometimes as much as six inches in length. Its skin is thick, somewhat hard, fragrant, and covered with protuberances; the pulp is white and subacid.

In Pliny’s time the fruit was never eaten (it began to be used in cooking by the early 2nd century), but its intense perfume was used, penetrating clothes to repel noxious insects (compare Citronella).

In Hebrew, the citron is known as the etrog (Hebrew: ???????). It is one of the Four Species used during the holiday of Sukkot each fall. The role of the citron in that holiday was portrayed in the Israeli movie Ushpizin. Citrons that have been bred with lemon (in order to increase output per tree and make the tree less fragile) are not kosher for use as part of the Four Species.

In South Indian cuisine, especially tamil cuisine, citron is widely used in pickles and preserves. In Tamil, the unripe fruit is referred to as ‘narthangai’, which is usually salted and dried to make a preserve. The tender leaves of the plant are often used in conjunction with chili powder and other spices to make a powder, called ‘narthellai podi’, literally translating to ‘powder of citron leaves’. Both narthangai and narthellai podi are usually consumed with thayir sadam.

In Korea, it is used to create a syrupy tea (called Yuja cha) where the slices of whole fruit are eaten with the sweet tea. The fruit is thinly sliced (peel, pith and pulp) and soaked or cooked in honey or sugar to create a chunky syrup. This syrupy candied fruit is mixed with hot water as a fragrant tea, where the fruit at the bottom of the cup is eaten as well. Often perserved in the syrup for the cold months, Yuja tea served as a source of fruit in winter.

Food Uses:
The most important part of the Citron is the peel, which is a fairly important article in international trade.
The candied peel is sun-dried or put up in jars for future use. Candying is done mainly in England, France and the United States. The candied peel is widely employed in the food industry, especially as an ingredient in fruitcake, plum pudding, buns, sweet rolls and candy. In Guatemala, Citron is used as flavoring for carbonated soft drinks. In Malaya, Citron juice is used as a substitute for the juice of imported, expensive lemons. A product called “Citron Water” is made in Barbados and shipped to France for flavoring wine and vermouth.
In Spain, syrup made from the peel is used to flavor unpalatable medical preparations. If the citron lacks flavor, a few orange or lemon leaves can be added to the syrup
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates.)

Indigenous Practices:
Chinese and Japanese people prize the Citron for its fragrance. It is a common practice in central and northern China to carry a ripe fruit in the hand or place a fruit in a dish on a table to perfume the air of a room.
The dried fruits are put with stored clothing to repel moths. In southern China, the juice is used to wash fine linen.
In some of the South Pacific islands a fragrant oil call “Cedrat Petitgrain Oil” is distilled from the leaves and twigs of Citron trees for the French perfume industry. The flowers have also been distilled for essential oil however this oil has limited use in scent manufacturing.
Branches of the Citron tree are used as walking sticks in India. The wood is white, hard and heavy, and of fine grain. In India, it is also used for agricultural implements.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates.)

Medicinal Uses:
In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the “Ethrog” was employed as a remedy for seasickness, pulmonary troubles, intestinal ailments and other disorders.
Citron juice with wine was considered an effective purgative to clean the system of poison. In India, the peel is a remedy for dysentery. The distilled juice is given as a sedative. The candied peel is sold in China as a stimulant, expectorant and tonic. In West Tropical Africa, the citron is used only as a medicine, against rheumatism. In Malaya, a decoction of the fruit is taken to drive off evil spirits. In Panama, they are ground up and combined with other ingredients and given as an antidote for poison. The essential oil of the peel is regarded as an antibiotic.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of Warm Climates.)

Ayurvedic Medicinal Uses:In heart disorders, abdominal colic, Gulma (abdominal tumors), vomiting, nausea, indigestion, haemorrhoids.

Disclaimer:The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.ntbg.org/plants/plant_details.php?rid=703&plantid=2870
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_medica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_herbs_and_minerals_in_Ayurveda

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Passionfruit

Botanical Name:Passiflora edulis
Family:Passifloraceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Genus: Passiflora
Species: P. edulis

Other Names: Passiflora edulis, passion fruit.It is locally called Sohbrab in Meghalaya in India
Habitat: It is native to South America and widely grown in India, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Brazil, Ecuador, California, southern Florida, Hawaii, Australia, East Africa, Israel and South Africa. It’s cultivation has been extended to some areas of North-eastern region like Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim.

Description:
The purple passion fruit (P. edulis) is a woody perennial vine with robust climber. The stems, tendrils and leaves are clear green without any trace of reddish or pinkish colour. The fruit is round or oval, 3 to 5 cm in diameter and deep purple when ripe. The yellow passion fruit (P. edulis f. flavicarpa) vine is much like that of the purple variety but is a more vigorous grower. It is distinguished by the suffusion of reddish, pinkish or purplish colour in stems, leaves and tendrils.The flowers have the scent of heliotropes.

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The passion fruit is round to oval, yellow or dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds. The fruit can be grown to eat or for its juice, which is often added to other fruit juices to enhance aroma.

The two types of passion fruit have greatly different exterior appearances. The bright yellow variety of passion fruit, which is also known as the Golden Passionfruit, can grow up to the size of a grapefruit, has a smooth, glossy, light and airy rind, and has been used as a rootstock for the purple passion fruit in Australia. The dark purple passion fruit (for example, in Kenya) is smaller than a lemon, with a dry, wrinkled rind at maturity.

The purple varieties of the fruit reportedly have traces of cyanogenic glycosides in the skin, and hence are mildly poisonous. However, the thick, hard skin is hardly edible, and if boiled (to make jam), the cyanide molecules are destroyed at high temperatures.

Cultivation details:
Requires a well-drained soil with plenty of moisture in the growing season, otherwise it is not fussy.

Plants are not very frost tolerant and are best grown in a greenhouse. However, the roots are somewhat hardier and can survive the winter outdoors in many areas of Britain if the soil is prevented from freezing. If plants are cut down to the ground by frost they can regenerate from the base. There is also the possibility of growing plants on rootstocks of P. caerulea which might make them hardier.

This species is often cultivated in warmer climes than Britain for its edible fruit, there are some named varieties. The fruit can be freely produced in Britain in hot summers.

Roots of outdoor grown plants should be restricted to encourage fruiting.

Any pruning is best carried out in the spring.

If fruit is required it is best to hand pollinate, using pollen from a flower that has been open for 12 hours to pollinate a newly opened flower before midday. The flowers open in sunny weather and do not open on dull cloudy days. The flowers have the scent of heliotropes.

A climbing plant, attaching itself to other plants by means of tendrils that are produced at the leaf axils.

Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus.
Propagation:
Pre-soak the seed for 12 hours in warm water and then sow late winter or early spring in a warm greenhouse. If sown in January and grown on fast it can flower and fruit in its first year[88]. The seed germinates in 1 – 12 months at 20°c. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle. It you are intending to grow the plants outdoors, it is probably best to keep them in the greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Mulch the roots well in late autumn to protect them from the cold.

Cuttings of young shoots, 15cm with a heel, in spring.

Leaf bud cuttings in spring.

Cuttings of fully mature wood in early summer. Takes 3 months. High percentage.

Uses
*A glass of passion fruit juiceIn Australia, it is available commercially fresh and canned. In addition to being added to fruit salads, passion fruit is commonly used in desserts, such as the topping for the pavlova (a meringue cake), cheesecake, and vanilla slice. It is also used to flavour soft drinks such as Passiona and cordials.

*In the Dominican Republic, it is used to make juice, jams, the chinola flavoured syrup is used on shaved ice and it is also eaten raw sprinkled with sugar.

*In Puerto Rico, where its called Parcha, it is widely believed to lower blood pressure. This is probably because it contains harmala alkaloids and is a mild RIMA.

*In Brazil, passion fruit mousse is a common dessert, and passion fruit seeds are routinely used to decorate the tops of certain cakes. Passion fruit juice is also very common.

*In Indonesia it is eaten straight as a fruit. Nevertheless, it is common to strain the passionfruit for its juice and cook it with sugar to make some sort of thick syrup. It is then mixed with water and ice to be drunk.

*In Hawaii, where it is called lilikoi, it is normally eaten raw. Hawaiians usually crack the rind of the lilikoi either with their hands or teeth and suck out the flavorful pulp and seeds. Lilikoi can also be cut in half and the pulp can easily be scooped out with a spoon. Lilikoi flavoured syrup is a popular topping for shave ice. Ice cream and mochi are also flavoured with lilikoi, as well as many other desserts such as cookies, cakes, and ice cream. Lilikoi is also favored as a jam, jelly, as well as a butter. Lilikoi fruits are not widely available in stores, so most of the fruit eaten comes from backyard gardens or wild groves. They however can be found in farmers markets sprinkled throughout the islands.

*Passion fruit juice or syrup is an essential ingredient of some cocktails, particularly the hurricane and the Peruvian maracuya sour.

*In South Africa passion fruit is used to flavor yogurt. It is also used to flavour soft drinks such as Schweppes Sparkling Granadilla and numerous cordial drinks.

Passion fruit juice can be boiled down to a syrup, which is used in making sauce, gelatin desserts, candy, ice cream, sharbat, cake icing, cake filling, etc. There is a preference for the purple variety as fresh fruit and the yellow one for juice-making.

Nutrition
Fresh Passion Fruit is known to be high in vitamin A, Potassium and dietary fibre. The Yellow variety is used for juice processing, while the Purple variety is sold in fresh fruit markets. Passion fruit juice is a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Medicinal Uses: There is currently a revival of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in Europe, in the use of the glycoside, passiflorine, especially from P. incarnata L., as a sedative or tranquilizer. Italian chemists have extracted passiflorine from the air-dried leaves of P. edulis.

The pulp of the fruit is stimulant and tonic.
In Madeira, the juice of passionfruits is given as a digestive stimulant and treatment for gastric cancer.

You may click to see also:->
Details of Passion fruit

Growing Passion Fruit, Flowers In Phoenix Arizona

Passionfruit PlantFiles: Passionfruit, Granadilla, Qarandila, Maracuja
Giant granadilla
Sweet granadilla

Granadilla

Passion Fruit

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_fruit
http://gbpihed.gov.in/envis/HTML/vol13_1/nrai.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Passiflora+edulis
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/passionfruit.htm

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Calabas or Bengali Lau

Botanical Name:Lagenaria siceraria
Family:Cucurbitaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Cucurbitales
Genus: Lagenaria
Species: L. siceraria

Common Names:: Bottle gourd, Calabash (Eng.); Kalbas (Afr.); Moraka (North Sotho); Segwana (Tswana); Iselwa (Xhosa, Zulu), Hindi:Louki, Dudhi. English:Bottle gourd, Calabash. Bengali:Lau. Gujrati:Dudhi . SoraykAyi. Kannada:Malyalam:Churaykka. Marathi:Dudhi, Dudhi bhopala. Panjabi : Dudhi, Ghiya. Tamil: Surai kai. Telugu: Sorakaya
Sinhala: Diya labu. Oriya: Lau.

Habitat:Grows in tropical jones, but now it is cultivated worldwide.

Description:
Vigorous annual herb. Stems prostrate or climbing, angular, ribbed, thick, brittle, softly hairy, up to 5 m long, cut stems exude no sap. Leaves simple, up to 400 mm long and 400 mm broad, shortly and softly hairy, broadly egg-, kidney- or heart-shaped in outline, undivided, angular or faintly 3-7-lobed, lobes rounded, margins shallowly toothed, crushed leaves non-aromatic. Leaf stalks up to 300 mm long, thick, often hollow, densely hairy, with two small, lateral glands inserted at the leaf base. Tendrils split in two.

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Flowers stalked (female flower stalks shorter than male), solitary, monoecious (male and female flowers on the same plant); petals 5, crisped, cream or white with darker veins, pale yellow at the base, obovate, up to 45 mm long, opening in the evenings, soon wilting. Fruit large, variable, up to 800 x 200 mm, subglobose to cylindrical, flask-shaped or globose with a constriction above the middle; fleshy, densely hairy to ultimately glabrous, indehiscent, green, maturing yellowish or pale brown, pulp drying out completely on ripening, leaving a thick, hard, hollow shell with almost nothing inside except the seeds. Seeds many, embedded in a spongy pulp, 7-20 mm long, compressed, with two flat facial ridges, in some variants rather irregular and rugose.

The calabash or African bottle gourd (not to be confused with the calabaza) is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, one of the calabash subspecies is known as the bottle gourd. The fresh fruit has a light green smooth skin and a white flesh.

The calabash was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not for food but as a container. It was named for the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete), a different type of plant.

Cultivation :   
Prefers a well-drained moist good rich circumneutral soil. Requires plenty of moisture in the growing season. Prefers a warm sunny position sheltered from the wind. The bottle gourd is widely cultivated in the tropics and sub-tropics for its edible fruit and for the hard wooden shell of the fruit that can be used as containers, musical instruments etc, there are many named varieties with different shaped and sized fruits. The variety ‘Cougourda’ is said to be the best for eating. Forms with wooden shells tend not to have an edible flesh. The plants are frost-tender annuals, they grow very rapidly and their stems can reach a length of 9 metres in the summer. A warm summer is required for good production of the fruit. British summers are often too cool for this species and obtaining a crop from outdoor-grown plants in this country is somewhat problematical. The best chance is by starting the plants off early in a warm greenhouse, growing them on fast and then planting them out as soon as possible but making sure that they are not checked by cold weather. Hand pollination of the fruits can increase fruit set. A climbing plant, attaching itself to supports by means of tendrils that grow out of the leaf axils. It can be used as a fast-growing summer screen. The leaves have a strong musky scent that some people find repulsive. The plant is remarkably disease and pest-free, this might be connected to the smell of the leaves.

Propagation:  
Seed – sow spring in a greenhouse in a rich soil, putting 2 – 3 seeds in a pot and thinning to the strongest plant. Grow on fast and plant out as soon as possible after the last expected frosts, giving some protection until the plants are established and growing well. The seed germinates best at 25°c. Soaking the seeds for 12 hours in warm water prior to sowing can hasten germination[86]. Discard any seeds that have not germinated after 10 days, the plants they produce will not be vigorous enough to succeed outdoors in Britain

Edible Uses :
Edible Parts: Fruit;  Leaves;  Oil;  Seed.
Edible Uses: Oil.
The calabash, as a vegetable, is frequently used in southern Chinese cuisine as either a stir-fry or in a soup. The Chinese name for calabash is hulu (simplified Chinese ; traditional Chinese:; pinyin: húlu) or huzi (Chinese:  pinyin: húzi) in Mandarin.

In Japan, the vegetable is known as yIgao, named after a character in Genji Monogatari. It is most commonly sold in the form of dried, marinated strips known as kanpya, which are used in place of seafood in a form of vegetarian makizushi (rolled sushi).

In Korea, it is known as bak or jorongbak.

In Italian cuisine, it is known as cucuzza (plural cucuzze).

In Central America, the seeds of the Calabash gourd are toasted and ground with other ingredients (including rice, cinnamon, and allspice) to make the drink horchata. Calabash is known locally as morro or jícaro.

In Tanzania, the pulp coated seeds of the Calabash are known as buyu (singular)/mabuyu (plural). These sour pulp coated seeds are gently cooked with sugar and coloured with food colouring and sold as sweets in coastal towns.

In India, it is known as lauki in Urdu or dudhi or ghiya in Hindi, Jatilao in Assamese, lau in Bengali, sorakaya in Telugu, dudhi-Bhopala in Marathi, sorekayi in Kannada, and suraikkaai (colloq. sorakkay) in Tamil. In parts of India, the dried, unpunctured gourd is used as a float (called surai-kuduvai in Tamil) to learn swimming in rural areas. The dried and cored thick outer skin has traditionally been used to make musical instruments like the tanpura, veena, etc.

Immature fruit – cooked and used as a vegetable. They can be boiled, steamed, fried, used in curries or made into fritters. Of variable quality, but some of the selected cultivars from India and China are of very good quality, equivalent to good summer squashes. The pulp around the seed is purgative and should not be eaten. The fruit can be dried for later use. Leaves and young shoots – cooked and used as a potherb. Seed – cooked. Rich in oil, it is added to soups etc. A vegetable curd, similar to tofu, can be made from the seed. An edible oil is obtained from the seed. It is used for cooking. Yields of up to 45% have been obtained

Lau is used to make a very authentic Bengali dish called Lau Chingri – a vegetable preparation prepared with Lau and Shrimps.

In Arabic it is called qara. In Bangladesh it is called lau or kumra/komra. The tender young gourd is cooked as a summer squash.

The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.

Medicinal Uses:
Antibiotic;  Antidote;  Diuretic;  Emetic;  Febrifuge;  Lithontripic;  Odontalgic;  Poultice;  Purgative;  Stomachic;  Vermifuge.

The pulp around the seed is emetic and purgative. A poultice of the crushed leaves has been applied to the head to treat headaches. The flowers are an antidote to poison. The stem bark and the rind of the fruit are diuretic. The fruit is antilithic, diuretic, emetic and refrigerant. The juice of the fruit is used in the treatment of stomach acidity, indigestion and ulcers. The seed is vermifuge. A poultice of the boiled seeds has been used in the treatment of boils. Taken with Achyranthes spp the seed is used to treat aching teeth and gums, boils etc. Extracts of the plant have shown antibiotic activity. In many parts of China 3 grams per day of this species (the report does not say what part of the plant) has been used as a single treatment for diabetes mellitus

Disclaimer:The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Other cultural uses:-

West Africa
Hollowed out and dried calabashes are a very typical utensil in households across West Africa. They are used to clean rice, carry water and also just as a food container. Smaller sizes are used as bowls to drink palm-wine. Calabashes are used by some musicians in making the kora (a harp-lute), xalam (a lute), ngoni (a lute) and the goje (a traditional fiddle). They also serve as resonators on the balafon (West African marimba). The calabash is also used in making the shegureh (a Sierra Leonean women’s rattle)   and balangi (a Sierra Leonean type of balafon) musical instruments. Sometimes, large calabashes are simply hollowed, dried and used as percussion instruments, especially by Fulani, Songhai, Gur-speaking and Hausa peoples.

Mexico
In many rural parts of Mexico, the calabash is dried and carved hollow to create a bule, a gourd used to carry water around like a canteen.

South America
In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil, calabash gourds are dried and carved into mates, the traditional container for the popular caffeinated tealike drink (also called mate) brewed from the yerba mate plant.

China
The hulu is an ancient remedy for health. In the old days the doctors would carry medicine inside so it has fabled properties for healing. The hulu is believed to absorb negative earth-based qi (energy) that would otherwise affect health and is a traditional Chinese medicine cure. Dried calabash is also used as containers of liquids, often liquors or medicine. Calabash were also grown in earthen molds to form different shapes and dried to house pet crickets, which were kept for their song and fighting abilities. The texture of the gourd lends itself nicely to the sound of the animal, much like a musical instrument. It is a symbol of the Xian immortals.

Hawaii
In Hawaii a calabash is a large serving bowl. It is usually made from a hardwood, rather than from the Calabash Gourd as in Maroon cultures. It is used on a buffet table or in the middle of the dining table. The use of the calabash in Hawaii has led to terms like “Calabash Family” or “Calabash Cousins”. It indicates that an extended family has grown up around shared meals and close friendships. Food is very important in modern Hawaiian culture. “Komo E Kaukau”, meaning “come and eat”, is the most expected greeting in a Hawaiian home.

Additionally, the gourd can be dried out and used to smoke pipe tobacco. A typical design yielded by this squash is recognized in (theatrically) the pipe of Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle never mentions Holmes using a calabash pipe. It was the preferred pipe for stage actors portraying Holmes, because they could balance this pipe better than other styles while delivering their lines.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_list_of_Indian_Vegetables

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louki

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantklm/lagensic.htm

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Lagenaria+siceraria

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Bhava

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Botanical Name :Garcinia cowa
Family: Clusiaceae

Synonyms: Garcinia kydia

Other names: Bhava, chenhek.

Bengali/vernacular names: Kau, Cowa, Kaglichu; Kao-gola (Chittagong)

Tribal name: Kao-gula (Chakma, Tanchangya), Tah Gala (Marma)

English name: Cow Tree

Habitat: Bhava is a lesser known edible fruit found in the states of East India (Assam, Mizoram, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa).  It is also found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  It occurs wild frequently in evergreen and semi evergreen forests or along streams in deep valleys,

Description:
Bhava is a decidious Trees 8-12 m tall, 15-20 cm in diam;  bark dark brown; branches many, borne toward top of trunk, horizontal but usually distally pendulous, slender; twigs dark brown, striate.

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Petiole 0.8-1.5(-2) cm; leaf blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 6-14 × 2-5 cm, papery, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; secondary veins 12-18 pairs, near margin joining together; tertiary veins conspicuous on both surfaces, base cuneate, sometimes slightly decurrent, margin cartilaginous, involute, apex acuminate or long acuminate, rarely acute or obtuse.

Dioecious; male flowers 3-8, terminal or axillary, in an umbel; umbel shortly pedunculate or rarely sessile, 4-bracteate at base; bracts subulate; pedicels 4-8 mm, slender; petals yellow, ca. 2 × as long as sepals; stamen fascicles 4, connate, forming a central capitate 4-sided mass of 40-50 anthers; filaments ± absent, at most short, anthers 4-celled, cells longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent; female flowers usually solitary, axillary, larger than male; pedicels robust, 2-3 mm; staminodes united in lower half and enveloping ovary base; filaments long or short, usually shorter than ovary; ovary ovoid, 4-8-loculed; stigma radiately 4-8-lobed, papillate, 6-7 mm high.

Fruit opaquely yellow-brown, ovoid-globose, oblique, 5-6 × 4-5 cm in diam., 4-8-sulcate, usually apiculate, pinkish red,  looking similar to tomato...click & see

Seeds 2-4, narrow, fusiform, slightly curved, ca. 2.5 cm, rough...click & see

Cultivation: New trees are raised from seed.  These are planted at a distance of 8 m from each other the bearing starts in 4-5 years.

Edible Uses:
The fruits are edible.  In spite of their being slightly sour in taste, these are fondly eaten by local people especially in Mizoram.  The fruits are also made into jam and preserve. The young leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

Chemical constituents:
Fruit pericarp is composed of a fat and the seeds yield a wax-like fat consisting of glycerides of stearic, oleic, palmitic, linoleic and myristic acids. Bark contains a gum resin (Ghani, 2003). A new compound 1,3,6-Trihydroxy-7-methoxy-8-(3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienyl)-xanthone has been isolated from stems (Rastogi & Mehrotra, 1993).

Click to see :Chemical constituents and biological activities of
Garcinia cowa Roxb  :

Medicinal Uses:
In East India, the sun dried slices of this fruit are used to treat dysentery.Bark is astringent; used in spasm. Fruits are given in headache. Gum resin is drastic cathartic, may produce nausea and vomiting.

Ethanolic extract of the leaf may possesses antibacterial properties  too.

Other Uses:
The bark is used for dying clothes yellow.Bhava tree also produces a yellow gum resin which resembles gamboge.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.fruitipedia.com/Cowa_Garcinia_cova.htm
http://www.mpbd.info/plants/garcinia-cowa.php

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Fruits & Vegetables

Tart Cherries

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Bing cherry branch
Image via Wikipedia

Botanical Name:Prunus cerasus
Other names: Prunus cerasus, sour cherry, pie cherry, tart cherry juice, montmorency cherry, balaton cherry.

Cherries are the smallest members of the stone fruit family, which include plums, apricots, nectarines, and peaches.

Cherrries are typically classified as either sweet or tart. Sweet cherries include Bing cherries, Lambert cherries, Rainier cherries and are grown mainly in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Tart cherries include the Montmorency and Balaton varieties and are produced primarily in Michigan.

Medicinal Uses:Both sweet and tart cherries and cherry juice have long been used by traditional healers as a folk remedy for gout, because cherries are thought to lower urate levels in the body.

Tart cherries are used for conditions involving inflammation and pain, such as:
arthritis

*Gout

*Muscle pain

*Back pain

*Diabetes

Neurodegenerative diseases
Both sweet and tart cherries contain phenolics, naturally-occurring plant compounds that have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant effects.

The main type of phenolic in cherries is called anthocyanins. In general, the darker the cherry color, the higher the anthocyanin content.

Anthocyanins have been found to block two enzymes, COX-1 and COX-2, which play a role in the production of inflammatory compounds called prostaglandins. Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as naproxen and ibuprofen also work this way.

In test tube studies, cherry anthocyanins have been found to protect neurons from damage by oxidative stress. However, there have been no studies that have looked at whether cherry extracts could prevent or slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease in humans.

Both Balaton and Montmorency tart cherries contain relatively high levels of the antioxidant melatonin compared to other foods. Montmorency cherries contain approximately 6 times more melatonin than do Balaton cherries.

Are tart cherries more effective than sweet cherries?
Generally, tart cherries have been found to have higher concentrations of phenolics and anthocyanins than sweet cherries.

Tart cherries are also slightly lower in sugar. Half a cup of sweet cherries contains 9.3 g of sugar and 46 calories, compared to 6.6 g of sugar and 39 calories in tart cherries.

However, there is no real evidence that these differences are significant-both types of cherries are very high in anthocyanins compared with other foods.

It may be that we are hearing more about the health benefits of tart cherries because of the way they are marketed. In 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to 29 cherry farmers and distributors for positioning tart cherries on their websites as a medicinal food that could possibly help people with gout, arthritis, diabetes, and prevent cancer.

You may click to see:->Tart cherries may help reduce type 2 diabetes, heart disease risk

Tart Cherries Reduce Inflammation and Improve General Health

Natural Painkillers And Strong Antioxidants Found In Tart Cherries

TART CHERRIES contain antioxidant compounds 10 times more active than aspirin.

What research has been done on tart cherries?
Although anthocyanins, which are also found in blueberries and other purplish-red fruits and vegetables, are known to be powerful antioxidants, no studies have looked at whether cherries–tart or sweet–can relieve symptoms of arthritis, gout, or diabetes outside the lab.

All studies involving cherries have been very small, so we’ll have to wait to see whether tart cherries are beneficial and in what quantities. In the meantime, here are a few of the studies that have been conducted so far:
A small randomized controlled trial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined the effectiveness of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage. Fourteen male college students drank 12 fl oz of a cherry juice blend or a placebo, twice per day for eight consecutive days. Strength loss was significantly lower in people taking the cherry juice (4%) compared with the placebo (22%). Pain was also significantly lower in people taking the cherry juice.

Jill M. Tall, Ph.D., research fellow at Johns Hopkins, was the lead researcher of a study that tested the effectiveness of orally administrated anthocyanins from tart cherries on inflammation-induced pain in rats. The results of the study suggested that tart cherry anthocyanins may have a beneficial role in reducing inflammatory pain.

One small study published in the Journal of Nutrition supported the anti-gout effectiveness of cherries. assessed the effects of Bing cherry (a sweet cherry) consumption on healthy women and found that cherry consumption decreased blood urate levels, and there was a marginal decrease in inflammatory markers c-reactive protein and nitric oxide.

Safety
Cherries contain sorbitol, which may exacerbate symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, or fructose malabsorption.

Where to find tart cherries
Tart cherry juice and fresh, frozen or dried tart cherries can be found in grocery stores, health food stores, and online.

Sources:http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/tart_cherry.htm

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