Garcinia indica (Thouars) Choisy (GUTTIFERAE)
Common names
English: Mangoseteen, Red mango, Kokam butter tree.
Kannada: Murgal Punarpuli.
Description: Tree, up to 15 m tall with conical crown; usually buttressed at base; bark light brown, very thin, smooth; branchlets often drooping. Leaves lanceolate or obovate – oblong, 6.5 -11×1.5 – 5 cm, contracted into petiole at base, acute or acuminate at apex, margin membranous, shiny; lateral veins 7-18, slender, prominent; petioles 5-12 mm long; young leaves red. Male flowers 4-8 in axillary or terminal fascicles, small, white; bracts scale-like, caducous. Sepals 4, decussate, ovate-rotundate, fleshy, yellowish to pinkish orange. Petals 4. Stamens inserted on a hemispheric subquadrate torus; anthers bilocular. Rudimentary pistil absent or if present as long as stamens. Female flowers usually solitary, terminal. Sepals and petals similar to those of male flowers. Ovary 4-8 loculed. The fruit is a spherical berry, approximately 3 cm in diameter, exhibiting shades of purple, orange, pink, or wine brown. It is encircled at the base by enduring sepals. The pulp is red, characterized by acidity, and has a fleshy texture. The seeds, numbering 5-8, are compressed.
Flowering & Fruiting: November – August
Distribution: In tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic. A threatened species.
Uses:
- The fruit is fit for consumption. The dehydrated outer rind of the fruit is employed, such as in the Konkan area of Maharashtra where it is known as Kokam, to enhance curries with its acidic flavor. Additionally, it is utilized in crafting refreshing syrups, particularly during warmer months. The seeds yield valuable fat known as ‘Kokum butter’ which is used as an edible fat, for adulterating ghee and in the manufacture of soaps and candles.
- The wood is well suited for paper-pulp.The oil-cake left after the extraction of oil is used as manure. Fruit antiscorbutic, cholagogue, antibilious; fruit and bark astringent; oil from seed astringent, demulcent, emolltient and soothing in cutaneous affections, used in pulmonary affections; leaf and oil antidysenteric. Root, bark, fruit and oil are used in piles, sprue, abdominal disorders, cardiac diseases, worm infection and thirst.