Indian Star Apple

Overview

Grown naturally in many areas of the Asiatic tropical and subtropical regions. The tree is harvested from the wild for local use of its edible fruit, for medicinal purposes and for timber. It is cultivated for its fruit and the wood, and is sometimes traded. The wood is moderately heavy and hard. It can be used for shingles, flooring, interior trim, panelling and partitioning, light tool handfurniture and cabinet making, grain mortars, veneer and plywood.

Vernacular Names

Bon-phita (Assamese), Noolambazham (Malayalam), Lawulu (Sri Lanka).

Agroecology

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests up to 1,400 m. The plant grows in sub-tropical, temperate, and tropical climates. It requires partial shade and medium sun. Need soil type of loam, peat, sand, with a neutral pH.

Morphology

• Root - taproot system.
• Stem - bole can be 45 cm in diameter, bark grey or pale brown, smooth, cracked vertically, inner bark fibrous, exudation milky, branches horizontal, young shoots densely ferruginous pubescent.
• Leaves - simple, alternate, disichous; petiole 0.5-0.8 cm long, canaliculate, pubescent when young, later glabrous; lamina 7-1 x 2-4 cm, narrow oblong to elliptic-oblong, apex caudate-acuminate with blunt tip, base slightly asymmetric and attenuate.
• Flower - inflorescence axillary dense clusters, white, bisexual, pedicel 0,3-0,5 cm long.
• Fruit - berry, fleshy, dark green when immature, yellow when ripe, globose 2.5-3.5 cm across, 5-6 locular. Mesocarp contained high amounts of sticky latex. Latex white, profuse.
• Seeds - 4-5, not winged, brown, shining, to 1.9 cm long.

Cultivation

It is propagated by seeds (generative propagation).

Chemical Constituents

Aspartic acid, glumatic acid, proline, lysine, essential amino acids, tannins, alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolic.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The seeds are used in a formulation to treat pneumonia at Sivasagar district of Assam, India. 
• The fruits are being used as one of the best deworming agent.