Durian – Durio Zibethinus Murr.

durian fruit

Durian – Durio Zibethinus Murr.

Local Names: Dulian (Lan., Sul., Mag., Bag.); durian (Lan.); durio (Bag.); duyan (Sul.).

Durian is cultivated for its highly prized fruit, and is not definitely known to exist  in a wild state in the Philippines. It is found in Agusan, Butuan, Lanao, Zamboanga, Cotabato, and Davao Provinces in Mindanao, and in the Sulu Archipelago. It also occurs in Indo-China, the Malaya Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas mostly in cultivation.

This tree grows up to 20 meters or more in height. The leaves are obovate-oblong, 15 to 25 centimeters long, and 5 to 9 centimeters wide, cinnamon colored, scaly beneath, and dark green, smooth, and shiny above. The whitish flowers are about 7.5 centimeters in diameter. The fruit is ellipsoid or somewhat spherical, very large, being 15 to 25 centimeters long, and weighing as much as 3 kilos or more; it is covered by a hard shell with hard, sharps spines. The shell breaks open into five parts to which the flesh adheres. In each section of the fruit there are 2 to 6 very large seeds covered by flesh (aril). The flesh is soft and whitish, and has somewhat the consistency of cheese and the odor of a bad-smelling cheese.

The fruit is very highly prized by natives of the regions where it grows. Some Europeans learned to like it, but most do not, as the odor is repugnant to them. The seeds are eaten either boiled or roasted.

According to Ridley, the Malays, besides looking on the durian fruit as tonic, consider the root medicinal, taking a decoction for a fever  that lasts more than three days. Burkill and Haniff report that the leaves and root are used in a compound for fevers. Burkill says that the leaves are utilized in medicinal baths for jaundice. Gimlette and Burkill state that their juice enters into a preparation for bathing the head of a fever patient.

Heyne says that in Java the fruit-walls are used externally for skin complaints. Perrot and Hurrier, writing on the Materia Medica of Sino-Annamites, attribute operative, depurative, and vermifuge properties to the fruit.