Ambarella (Spondias dulcis). Leaves and fruits.

Ambarella - Spondias dulcis

Spondias dulcis (syn. Spondias cytherea), known commonly as Ambarella, Polynesian plum or Tahiti apple, is a tropical fruit tree native to Melanesia, with edible fruit containing a fibrous pit.

The tree was spread to neighboring regions as canoe plant in Island Southeast Asia and Polynesia in prehistoric times by seafaring Austronesians during the Austronesian expansion. It remains widely cultivated in Polynesia, where it is generally known under the names vī or wī, and variants thereof.

It has also been introduced to other areas of the world in colonial times. In the English-speaking Caribbean it is typically known as golden apple and elsewhere in the Caribbean as pommecythere, April plum or June plum, or cythere.

The tree is often cultivated in the tropics, both for its edible fruit and as an ornamental.

Spondias dulcis is a fast-growing and graceful deciduous tree. This fast-growing tree can reach up to 20 m in its native range of Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Polynesia; however, it usually averages 10–12 m in other areas. The bole can be 45cm in diameter.

Spondias dulcis has deciduous, pinnate leaves, 20–60 cm in length, composed of 9 to 25 glossy, elliptic or obovate-oblong leaflets 9–10 cm long, which are finely toothed toward the apex. The tree produces small, inconspicuous white flowers in terminal panicles.

Its oval fruits, 6–9 cm long, are borne in bunches of 12 or more on a long stalk. Over several weeks, the fruit fall to the ground while still green and hard, then turn golden-yellow as they ripen. According to Morton (1987), "some fruits in the South Sea Islands weigh over 500 g each."

Spondias dulcis can take 4–6 years from planting time to harvest, with a productive life of 20–30 years and almost all year round fruiting season. Propagation is primarily by cuttings or marcotting.

Spondias dulcis is native to the coastal areas of Melanesia and Southeast Asia, specifically modern day Indonesia and Malaysia, and has been introduced into tropical areas across the world. It was brought to Jamaica in 1782, and it is cultivated in Panama, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Brazil, Costa Rica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia, and eastern Sucre in Venezuela. The United States Department of Agriculture received seeds from Liberia in 1909, but it did not become a popular crop in the US. Nevertheless, it is grown in South Florida as far north as Palm Beach County. The fruit is also widely grown in Somalia's agriculture belt, probably introduced during the colonial times preceding 1960.

Spondias dulcis is most commonly used as a food source. Its leaves are eaten raw or cooked. Pleasantly acid. Steamed and eaten as a vegetable. In West Java, its young leaves are used as seasoning for pepes. In Costa Rica, the more mature leaves are also eaten as a salad green though they are tart. However, it is most commonly used for its fruit.

Fruits are eaten or cooked. When green, the fruit is crisp and subacid. As the fruit ripens to a yellow colour, the flesh softens; the flavour changes and the fibres become more noticeable. The ripe amber-coloured, plum-shaped fruits have a sweet to acid, slightly turpentine flavour. They can be made into jams, marmalade etc. Unripe fruits are often used as a sour flavouring in sauces, soups etc. The unripe fruit contains about 10% pectin. The oblong fruit is up to 10cm long x 8cm wide.

 In  Indonesia and Malaysia, it is eaten with shrimp paste, a thick, black, salty-sweet sauce called hayko in the Southern Min dialect of Chinese. It is an ingredient in rujak in Indonesia and rojak in Malaysia. The juice is called kedondong in Indonesia, amra in Malaysia, balonglong in Singapore and gway thee in Myanmar.

The fruit is made into preserves and flavorings for sauces, soups, braised and stews. In Fiji it is made into jam, and its leaves are used to flavour meat. In Samoa and Tonga it is used to make otai.

  In Sri Lanka the fruit is soaked in vinegar with chili and other spices to make acharu. In Vietnam the unripe fruit is eaten with salt, sugar, and chili, or with shrimp paste. Children eat the fruit macerated in artificially sweetened licorice extract.  In Cambodia it is made into a salad called nhoam mkak. In Thai cuisine both the fruits and the tender leaves are eaten.

In Jamaica, it is mostly considered a novelty, especially by children. It can be eaten with salt or made into a drink sweetened with sugar and spiced with ginger. In Barbados, the ripe fruit is eaten naturally, or sprinkled with a bit of salt, or dipped in the ocean's natural slightly salty water while at the beach. It is also used to make juice in Grenada and Saint Lucia. In Trinidad and Tobago, it is curried, sweetened, salted, or flavored with pepper sauce and spices. In Suriname and Guyana, the fruit is dried and made into a spicy chutney, mixed with garlic and peppers.

There are diverse traditional medicinal uses of the fruits, leaves and bark in different parts of the world. The treatment of wounds, sores and burns is reported from several countries. Parts of the plant are made into a fermented drink which is used as a remedy for diarrhoea.

The juice of the plant is used as eye drops to reduce eye inflammations. The shoots of the plant are used to treat haemorrhaging after childbirth. The pressed liquid obtained from the stem is given after a false pregnancy, and for weakness following childbirth. An infusion of the leaves is used to treat sore throats and mouth infections.

The pressed liquid obtained from the bark is taken to cleanse the bowels. The bark filtrate is also employed as an abortifacient, to promote sterility and to treat fish poisoning. A few drops of the pressed bark fluid are applied to the eyes as a remedy for cataracts. Fluid pressed from the bark is used in treating diarrhoea, whilst the bark is also used to treat dysentery.
The inner bark is used to treat coughs, fever and stomach aches. It is also used to treat mouth and body sores.

The fruit is mildly diuretic. The grated fruit, mixed with water, is used to treat high blood pressure. The young fruit is used to treat stomach trouble and to aid a woman in labour.

 
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spondias_dulcis
https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Spondias+dulcis