FERONIA LIMONIA

Common name: Wood Apple • Hindi: Kaith कैठ • Gujarati: Kotha • Telugu: Velaga • Bengali: Katbel •Kannada: Belavu • Marathi: Kovit • Sanskrit: Kapitha

Botanical name: Feronia limonia, Limonia acidissima   

Family: Rutaceae (citrus family)

Synonyms: Feronia elephantum, Feronia limonia, Schinus limonia

Introduction: Wood apple is an erect, slow-growing tree with a few upward-reaching branches bending outward near the summit where they are subdivided into slender branchlets drooping at the tips. The bark is ridged, fissured and scaly and there are sharp spines 3/4 to 2 in long on some of the zigzag twigs. The deciduous, alternate leaves, 3 to 5 in long, dark-green, leathery, often minutely toothed, blunt or notched at the apex, are dotted with oil glands and slightly lemon-scented when crushed. Yellowish green flowers, tinged with red, 1/2 in across, are borne in small, loose, terminal or lateral panicles. The tree is mostly known for its hard woody fruit, size of a tennis ball, round to oval in shape. The pulp is brown, mealy, odorous, resinous, astringent, acid or sweetish, with numerous small, white seeds scattered through it.

Cultivation and collection: Seedlings are field planted after they attain a height of 30 to 45cm.  Climate: It is said to require a monsoon climate with a distinct dry season.

Soil: Throughout its range there is a diversity of soil types, but it is best adapted to light soils.

Harvesting: The fruit is tested for maturity by dropping onto a hard surface. Immature fruits bounce, while mature fruits do not. After harvest, the fruit is kept in the sun for 2 weeks to fully ripen.

Chemical content: Gum: It consists of arabinose, xylose, d-galactose, and traces of rhamnose.

Wood: ursolic acid, glycoside, 7-methylporiol-b-D-xylopyranosyl-D-glucopyranoside.

Fruits: Stigmasterol.

Leaves: stigmasterol and bergapten.

Bark: marmesin.

Root bark: aurapten, bergapten, isopimpinellin and other coumarins.

Geographical distribution

The plant occurs throughout India.

Therapeutic uses

The leaves are aromatic, carminative and astringent. The unripe fruit is astringent and is administered in diarrhoea and dysentery.

Folk medicinal uses

The juice of young leaves is given with milk and sugar in biliousness and bowel complaints of children; a powder of the leaves is also given in 10-20 mg. doses for the same complaints.

Flowers : March-May. Fruits : October