Flacourtia indica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Flacourtia indica (Burm.f.) Merr.

Family: Flacourtiaceae

• Flacourtia ramontchi L'Hérit.

• Madagascar plum (En)
• Indonesia: duri rukem (Bahasa Indonesia), saradan (Sundanese), baga (Java)
• Malaysia: kerkup kecil
• Philippines: bitolgol (Tagalog), bolong (Mangyan), palutan (Ibanag)
• Cambodia: krâk hôp nhii
• Thailand: takhop-pa (central), makwen-pa, makwen-nok (northern)
• Vietnam: hông qûân, muôn quân, ân do.

Widespread and cultivated in Africa and Asia.

The fruit is edible but rather astringent. Infusions of the bark are used as a gargle, of the root to cure pneumonia, of the leaves to cure fever, coughs and diarrhoea.

• Deciduous tree, up to 15 m tall, often spiny.
• Leaves very variable, often narrowly obovate, up to 9 cm × 5 cm.
• Fruit a globose to ellipsoid berry, about 1 cm in diameter, blackish-red, with 5-8 seeds.

Usually in seasonally dry, open, barren places, on limestone, clayey or sandy soils, up to 700 m altitude.

• Morton, J.F., 1987. Fruits of warm climates. Creative Resource Systems Inc., Winterville, N.C., USA. 503 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.

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