Buchanania cochinchinensis | |
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Flowering charoli tree in Maharashtra, India | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Anacardiaceae |
Genus: | Buchanania |
Species: | B. cochinchinensis |
Binomial name | |
Buchanania cochinchinensis | |
Synonyms [1] | |
List |
Buchanania cochinchinensis, commonly known as charoli nut, almondette, Cuddapah almond, calumpong, Hamilton mombin, [2] [3] [4] is a deciduous tree of the cashew family. The charoli tree is native to the Indian subcontinent, South Central China, and much of Southeast Asia. [1]
The charoli tree produces fruit that is edible to humans. [3] The seeds are used as a cooking spice, especially in India. [4] Charoli seeds are also used in the Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha systems of medicine. [2]
The tree grows to about 20 metres (66 feet). Young branches are covered with dense, matted, woolly hairs. The leaves are 10–20 by 6–9 centimetres (3.9–7.9 by 2.4–3.5 inches), broadly oblong with emarginate (slightly indented at the tip) apices and rounded bases. The flowers are white and 0.3–0.4 centimetres (0.12–0.16 inches) in diameter. The drupes are 0.4–1 centimetre (0.16–0.39 inches) in diameter and subglobose (inflated, but not quite spherical) in shape. When ripe, they are stone hard and reddish-purple in color. [5] Flowering occurs March–April, and the fruit is generally harvested in the months of April to June. [6]
Genus Buchanania is named for Francis Buchanan (1762–1829), a Scottish botanist, explorer, naturalist, and surgeon in the British East India Company. [2] B. cochinchinensis is one of 25 currently accepted species in genus Buchanania . [7] The species was first described as Toluifera cochinchinensis in 1790 [8] by João de Loureiro, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and botanist. Initially placed in genus Toluifera , the species was later included in multiple other genera, including Glycosmis , Lanzana, Loureira, Lundia , Mangifera , and Spondias . The species was most recently reclassified as Buchanania cochinchinensis in 1996. [9]
The charoli tree is native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (south-central and Hainan), India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Western Himalayas. It grows primarily in the wet tropical and tropical rainforest biomes. [1] [3]
Though sometimes referred to as the "chironji nut" or "charoli nut", [2] [4] [10] the fruit is actually a type of drupe rather than a true botanical nut. [5] After the hard shell of the drupe is cracked, the stubby seed within is similar in texture to a pine nut. [10] The charoli seed is around 0.6 centimetres (0.24 inches) in length, with a flavor resembling an almond or a pistachio. [11] The seeds are used as a cooking spice, especially in Indian cuisine. Though they can be eaten raw, they are often toasted or roasted before use, as this intensifies the flavor of any nut or seed. They are commonly used in sweets in India, or ground into powders for thickening and flavoring savory sauces, batters and kormas. [10]
Charoli seeds are used in the Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha systems of medicine. A decoction can be prepared from the bark of the stem or the leaves, to be used as a treatment for indigestion, mumps, impotence, spermatorrhea, heavy menstrual bleeding, diarrhea, or snakebite. This can also be used as an expectorant, aphrodisiac, or a laxative. The leaves can be crushed and applied to burns and wounds. [2]
The species is not commercially cultivated in India. The fruit is collected by local people from the forests and sold directly to the local markets. With a potential annual production of 5000 metric tonnes, Chhattisgarh is the highest-producing state in India for charoli fruit. [6] Leafhoppers, mealybugs, and bark-eating caterpillars ( Indarbela spp.) are important pests of B. cochinchinensis, while gummosis and powdery mildew represent important pathogens. [6]
Circa 588 BCE, [12] the 35-year-old [13] Siddhartha Gautama stayed for seven weeks (7x7 days = 49 days = 1 sattasattāha) at Uruvela (modern Bodh Gaya), which is located in the present-day Indian state of Bihar. According to the Great Chronicle of Buddhas, he spent one week at each of seven successive locations there. [14] During these seven weeks, he did not eat or drink, wash or excrete, or lie down. [15] [16] [17] The specific locations were:
The seventh week was passed while sitting under a rājāyatana (B. cochinchinensis) tree, where the Buddha enjoyed the bliss of his newly attained buddhahood. [16] [24] [25] Upon the completion of this sattasattāha, several important "firsts" in Buddhism took place at the rājāyatana tree at Bodh Gaya, including:
According to Burmese folklore, Tapussa and Bhallika (the two passing merchants who became the Buddha's first lay disciples) later returned to their home in Okkalapa (Lower Burma), where they built a cetiya on Singuttara Hill (the Shwedagon Pagoda), where they enshrined the hair relics given to them by the Buddha. [27] [30]
Mangifera is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains about 69 species, with the best-known being the common mango. The center of diversity of the genus is in the Malesian ecoregion of Southeast Asia, particularly in Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay peninsula. They are generally canopy trees in lowland rainforests, reaching a height of 30–40 m (98–131 ft).
The cashew tree is a tropical evergreen tree native to South America in the genus Anacardium that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as 14 metres, but the dwarf cultivars, growing up to 6 m (20 ft), prove more profitable, with earlier maturity and greater yields. The cashew seed is commonly considered a snack nut eaten on its own, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. Like the tree, the nut is often simply called a cashew. Cashew allergies are triggered by the proteins found in tree nuts, and cooking often does not remove or change these proteins.
Dimocarpus longan, commonly known as the longan and dragon's eye, is a tropical tree species that produces edible fruit. It is one of the better-known tropical members of the soapberry family Sapindaceae, to which the lychee and rambutan also belong. The fruit of the longan is similar to that of the lychee, but less aromatic in taste. It is native to tropical Asia and China.
A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, a wide variety of dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context "nut" implies that the shell does not open to release the seed (indehiscent).
The Brazil nut is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. The fruit and its nutshell – containing the edible Brazil nut – are relatively large, possibly weighing as much as 2 kg (4.4 lb) in total weight. As food, Brazil nuts are notable for diverse content of micronutrients, especially a high amount of selenium. The wood of the Brazil nut tree is prized for its quality in carpentry, flooring, and heavy construction.
Vernicia is a genus in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae, first described as a genus in 1790. It is native to China, Japan, India, and Indochina. The species have often been included within the related genus Aleurites.
The curry tree, Murraya koenigii or Bergera koenigii, is a tropical and sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, native to Asia. The plant is also sometimes called sweet neem, though M. koenigii is in a different family to neem, Azadirachta indica, which is in the related family Meliaceae.
Osmanthus fragrans, variously known as sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fragrant olive, is a species native to Asia from the Himalayas through the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan in Mainland China, Taiwan, southern Japan and Southeast Asia as far south as Cambodia and Thailand.
Myrica rubra, also called yangmei, yamamomo, Chinese bayberry, red bayberry, yumberry, waxberry, or Chinese strawberry is a subtropical tree grown for its fruit.
Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla, from the Sanskrit आमलकी (āmalakī), is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. Its native range is tropical and southern Asia.
Menispermaceae is a family of flowering plants. The alkaloid tubocurarine, a neuromuscular blocker and the active ingredient in the 'tube curare' form of the dart poison curare, is derived from the South American liana Chondrodendron tomentosum. Several other South American genera belonging to the family have been used to prepare the 'pot' and 'calabash' forms of curare. The family contains 68 genera with some 440 species, which are distributed throughout low-lying tropical areas with some species present in temperate and arid regions.
Staphylea, called bladdernuts, is a small genus of 10 or 11 species of flowering plants in the family Staphyleaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The highest species diversity is in China, where four species occur.
Stemona is a genus of vines and subshrubs in the family Stemonaceae, described as a genus in 1790.
João de Loureiro was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and botanist.
Buchanania is a genus of plants in the family Anacardiaceae and subfamily Anacardioideae.
Stemona tuberosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Stemonaceae. It is native to China, India, southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Hornets play an important role in seed dispersal by biting off the seed with its elaiosome and then carrying the seed away for about 100 m. There they chew off the elaiosome and abandon the seed which is likely to be taken by ants into their nest.
Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia is a small tree in the family Proteaceae. This rare species is native to subtropical rainforest in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. Common names include red bopple nut, monkey nut, red nut, beef nut, rose nut and ivory silky oak. The tree produces fleshy, red fruits during spring and summer. These contain edible seeds.
Sarcodum is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, tribe Wisterieae. Its three species are twining vines growing over shrubs, and are native from southeast mainland China to the Solomon Islands.
Barringtonia racemosa is a tree in the family Lecythidaceae. It is found in coastal swamp forests and on the edges of estuaries in the Indian Ocean, starting at the east coast of Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal to Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand, Laos, southern China, northern Australia, coastal Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and many Polynesian islands.
Schleichera is a monotypic genus of plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. There is only one species, Schleichera oleosa, a tree that occurs in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.