English Name : India
Acalypha, Three Seeded Mercury
Common
name: Carambola, Star fruit • Urdu: कमरख़
Kamrakh • Hindi: Karmal करमल
• Manipuri: হৈনৌজোম Heinoujom • Malayalam: Caturappuli • Tamil:
Tamarattai, Gujrati : कमरख़ Kamrakh
Botanical
name: Averrhoa carambola
Family:
Oxalidaceae (wood sorrel family)
Geographical
distribution: The plant occurs throughout India as a
weed in gardens and agriculture fields.
Introduction:
A slow growing small tropical tree, no more than 25 feet tall, originally from
Southeast Asia (Indonesia) The green leaflets are sensitive to light and fold
inward at night. It has small, pink colored flowers with a dark-red heart. The
carambola plant will flower and fruit four times yearly. This tropical fruit,
fleshy five lobbed, ovate to elliptoid, is attractive yellow-orange and
pleasantly aromatic! The tree flowers and bears fruit almost year-round. When
sliced in cross section a perfect star is formed. Carambola is eaten fresh or
in fruit salads. The carambola tree seems to be used for bonsai.
Species
Type: Tree
Chemical
composition: The plant contains the alkaloid
acalyphine.
Therapeutic
uses: The plant is an expectorant, diuretic, laxative,
emetic and anti-ulcerous. It is also useful in asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia
and rheumatism.
Folk
medicinal uses: The juice of the leaves or decoction
mixed with a little garlic is used as an anthelmintic. A mixture of the fresh
juice and oil is applied in rheumatic arthritis.
Flowers
:
September-June
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