PinoyEcoFarmer

Langka – Artocarpus Heterophyllus Lam.

Langka – Artocarpus Heterophyllus Lam.  / Artocarpus philippensis Lam. / Polyphema jaca Lour. / Artocarpus maxima Blanco / Saccus elasticus OK. / Saccus integer OK. /  Saccus heterophyllus OK. / Radermachia integra Thumb. / Artocarpus integra Merr.

Local names: Langka (Ilk., Bis., Tag.); lanka (Tag., Bis.); nangka (Tag., Ibn., Bis., Sul.); nanka (Tag., Bis.); jack fruit (Engl.).

The jackfruit or Langka, is cultivated throughout the Philippines at low and medium altitudes, and some regions is spontaneous. It is not a native of the archipelago but is of prehistoric introduction from Malaya or tropical Asia. It also occurs in India to Malaya, and is now cultivated in most tropical countries.

Langka is smooth tree, attaining a height of from 8 to 15 meter: the leaves are alternate, leathery, elliptic-oblong, to obovate, entire or sometimes 3-lobed, 7 to 15 centimeters long, the apex and the base are both pointed. The female heads are embraced by spathaceous, deciduous, stipular sheaths, 5 to 8 centimeters long. The sepals are two. The spike is 5 to 15 centimeters long. The fruit is very green or greenish-yellow, when wipe, fleshy hanging on shorts stocks from the main stems or from large branches in old trees, oblong, 25 to 60 centimeters long, and covered with pyramidal projections. The seeds are numerous, oblong, 2.5 to 4 centimeters long. Th testa is thin, coriacous, and surrounded by a laceous pulp (aril) whish is edible.

The Langka is very well known fruit tree in the Philippines. The young fruits are eaten as vegetables. The pulp or flesh (lamukot) surrounding the seeds, is rich yellow sweet and aromatic, and when ripe, is eaten straight or cooked and preserved. It makes good preserves or other sweets. The sees are eaten boiled or roasted. The latex of the tree is used as birdlime, and if heated makes an excellent cement for broken China. The bark is sometimes made into rope and cloth. The wood is used locally to a limited extent as a yellow dye. The unripe fruit, according to Nadkarni, is generally used in the preparation of pickles in India.

Analyses of the fruit show a high carbohydrate content, and indicate that it is nutritious. It is, however, deficient in calcium and iron. The seeds are very rich in starch, but for us sources of calcium and iron.

According to Nadkarni the dry stuff, jackwood, contains morin and a crystalline constituent, cyanomaclurine. Cyanomaclurin, according to Perkin and

Yoshitake , has been found to contain phloroglucinol group-and is probably isomeric with catechins Frieze gives the chemical analysis of an “amendoa” in Brazil:.Moisture, 28.50 per cent; sugars (saccharose, fructose, glucose), 5.48 per cent; fixed oil; 6.64 per cent; essential oil, 0.15 per cent; other extracts, 22.39 per cent; protein, 18.85 per cent; cellulose, 14.47 per cent; inorganic matter, 3.52 per cent total, 100 per cent. Of the components of the essential oil piperonal is noted. Read says that the pulp (lamukot) of the fruit contains Vitamin C.

In the Philippines the ash of the leaves, after burning, is applied on wounds and ulcers as a dried or cicatrizant. It is sometimes mixed with coconut oil as an ointment for the same purpose. Kirtikar and Basu, Chopra, Nadkarni, and Dey reports that the leaves are used in skin disease.

The decoction of the root is used in diarrhea and for fever. The root is also useful in skin diseases. Daruty say that the roots are antiasthmatic.

The milky juice of the tree is used in glandular swelling, and in snakebite. Mixed with vinegar and applied to these swellings and to abscesses, it promotes absorption or suppuration.

According to Nadkarni, the ripe fruit is demulcent, nutritive, and laxative. The unripe fruit is astringent. He says that if eaten in large quantities, it produces diarrhea. Stuart reports that the pulp envelops or arils of the seeds are considered by the Chinese to be cooling, tonic, and nutritious. The starch of the seeds is given in billions colic, according to Daruty Tavera says that, according to Father Mercado, the roasted seeds have an aphrodisiac action.