Chrysobalanus icaco (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Chrysobalanus icaco L.

Family: Chrysobalanaceae

Vernacular names

• Coco plum, icaco (En)
• Chrysobalanier (Fr)
• Vietnam: mân du'à.

Distribution

Wild and cultivated in the Neotropics, in West and Central Africa, naturalized in Fiji and Singapore. In South-East Asia it is cultivated in Vietnam, occasionally also in other countries.

Uses

The fruit is eaten raw, boiled or candied. The tannin in the fruit is used to tan leather. In traditional medicine the fruit is applied against diarrhoea. Also planted as ornamental.

Observations

• Shrub or small tree to 5 m tall.
• Fruit an ovoid or obovoid drupe, 2-5 cm long, longitudinally ridged; mesocarp thin and fleshy.

On dunes, beaches and in coastal scrub, sometimes planted to stabilize dunes.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd ed. 2 Volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.

• Mansfeld, R. & Schultze Motel, J., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kuturpflanzen. 2nd ed. 4 Volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin. 1998 pp.

• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950-. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4-10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen