Chico – Achras Zapota Linn.

chico fruits

Chico – Achras sapota Linn. / Sapota achras Mill. / Sapota zapotilla Coville

Local names: Chico (Tag.); chiku tree, sapodilla (Engl.).

Chico is cultivated in most parts of the Philippines. It was introduced from tropical America in the early colonial period and is also cultivated in the tropics generally.

This is a much-branched tree reaching a height of 8 meters. The leaves are oblong to narrowly oblong-obovate, 8 to 13 centimeters in length, and pointed at both ends. The flowers are hairy outside, 6 to 8 millimeters long, and 6-parted. The fruit is brown, fleshy, ovoid or somewhat rounded, and 3 to 8 centimeters long, containing 5 or more shiny, blackish-brown seeds. The flesh is brown, soft, slightly grifty, sweet, and very agreeable in flavor.

In the Philippines the bark is used for tanning sails and for making fishing tackle. Gum chicle, the principal substance derived from the milky juice of the bark is used in the manufacture of chewing gum. No gum chicle is produced in the Philippines. Other uses of the gum chicle are for transmission belts, dental surgery, and a substitute for gutta-percha.

Wehmer records that the leaves contain a bitter principle alkaloid, sapotin 0.076 per cent, fixed oil 1.45 per cent, etc. The fruit also has sapotin, 0.013 per cent. The seeds yield the sapotin; sapotin, achrassaponin; an alkaloid; fixed oil 16-23 per cent; a bitter principle, sapotinine 0.08 per cent, etc. The bark also contains sapotin and saponin, and tannin 11.8 per cent. The gum chicle contains resin 75 per cent, gum (arabin) 10 per cent, calcium oxalate, sugar, etc. Prinsen-Geerligs reports that the fruit-flesh yields saccharose 7 per cent, dextrose 3.7 per cent, and levulose 3.4 per cent.

The bark and the fruit are official in the Mexican (1-4) Pharmacopoeia.

According to Dymock, in the West Indies the seeds are known to be aperient and diuretic, and the bark is reputed to be tonic and febrifuge. In the Konkan the fruit, soaked in melted butter all night and eaten in the morning, is considered to be an excellent preventive against biliousness and febrile attacks. Corre and Lejanne state that in the Antilles, the astringent fruit is recommended for dysentery.

Menaut says that the decocted bark is given for diarrhea and fever in Cambodia.