2267

8: Vegetables

Garcinia cowa Roxburgh

GUTTIFERAE

Indonesia: kemenjing (Java), ki ceuri (West Java). Malaysia: kandis. Philippines: bilukau (Tagalog), pildis (Pampanggan), paniginen (Sambali). Thailand: chamuang, muang-som (southern). Vietnam: tai chua.

From eastern and north-eastern India to Indo-China, wild and cultivated. Occasionally also cultivated outside this area.

Young leaves and shoots are eaten cooked in Burma and Thailand where it is sold in small quantities in local markets. Fruits are edible but very acid. In Vietnam they are an important source of natural citric acid, used for making sour fish or crab soup. The tree yields an inferior gum-resin, resembling gamboge. The tree is sometimes used as rootstock for Garcinia mangostana L.

An evergreen, tall to medium-sized, dioecious tree. Leaves broadly lanceolate, 5—7.5 cm long, thick and shiny. Fruit a dull red subglobose berry, 3—5 cm x 2.5—3.5 cm, slightly 6—8-lobed, with orange-yellow pulp. In evergreen and semi-evergreen forest or along streams in valleys.

[27]Corner, E.J.H. & Watanabe, K., 1969. Illustrated guide to tropical plants. Hirokawa Publishing Co., Tokyo, Japan. 1147 pp.
[52]Kurz, W.S., 1877. Forest flora of British Burma. 2 volumes. Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, India.
[86]Terra, G.J.A., 1966. Tropical vegetables. Communication 54. Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 107 pp.
[94]Wealth of India (various editors), 1948–1976. A dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products: raw materials. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. 4

M.H. van den Bergh

Van den Bergh, M.H., 1993. Garcinia cowa Roxburgh. In: Siemonsma, J.S and Piluek, K (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 8: Vegetables. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea