Carissa carandas (PROSEA)
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Introduction |
- Family: Apocynaceae
Synonyms
Carissa congesta Wight.
Vernacular names
- Karanda, karaunda, Bengal currant (En)
- Indonesia: karandan (Java), senggaritan (Timor)
- Malaysia: kerenda, kerandang, berenda
- Philippines: karanda, caramba, perunkila
- Thailand: naam daeng (Bangkok), manaao ho (peninsular), naam khee haet (Chiang Mai)
- Vietnam: cây sirô.
Distribution
Native and cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Peninsular Malaysia. Introduced and naturalized in Indonesia and the Philippines. Widely cultivated also in Thailand, Indo-China and East Africa.
Uses
The fruits are eaten raw or stewed with sugar; also used to make beverages, curries, tarts, jellies and puddings. Plants are suitable for hedging. Medicinally the fruits are used as an astringent, antiscorbutic and as a remedy for biliousness; a leaf decoction is used against fever, diarrhoea, earache; the roots serve as stomachic, vermifuge, remedy for itches, and insect repellent. The wood is hard and used to make small utensils.
Observations
Climbing shrub, usually 3-5 m tall, rich in white latex, branches with simple or branched sharp spines. Fruit a berry, in clusters of 3-10, globose to broad-ovoid, 1-2.5 cm long, dark purple to blackish. It is grown in full sun, in not too humid regions. Propagation usually by seed, vegetative propagation is difficult.
Selected sources
3, 51, 56, 61.
