| Botany
Kamias is a small tree, growing 5 to
12 meters high. Leaves are pinnate, 20 to 60 centimeters long, with hairy rachis
and leaflets. Leaflets are opposite, 10 to 17 pairs, oblong, 5 to 10
centimeters in length. Panicles growing from the trunk and larger branches are hairy, 15 centimeters long or less. Flowers are about 1.5 centimeters long, and slightly fragrant. Fruit is green and edible, about 4 centimeters long, subcylindric, or with 5 obscure, broad,
rounded, longitudinal lobes.
Distribution
- Cultvated and semi-cultivated
throughout the Philippines.
- Introduced from tropical America.
- Now pantropic.
Parts
utilized
Leaves, fruit, juice.
Constituents
• Study on volatile components of fruits showed 6 mg/kg of
total volatile compounds; 62 compounds were identified, nonanal and
(Z)-3-hexenol were dominant.
• Fruit contains potassium oxalate.
Properties
• Considered antibacterial, astringent, antiscorbutic, febrifuge,
antidiabetic, stomachic, refrigerant.
• Fruit considered astringent, refrigerant, and stomachic.
Uses
Nutrition
- Eaten raw.
- Prepared as a relish and food flavoring.
- Made into sweets and jams; used in making pickles.
Folkloric
• Skin diseases,
especially with pruritus: Reduce the leaves to a paste and apply tolerably
warm to areas of affected skin.
• Fruit juice used as eye drops.
• Post-partum and rectal inflammation: Infusion of leaves.
• Mumps, acne, and localized rheumatic complaints: Paste of leaves
applied to affected areas.
• Warm paste of leaves also used for pruritus.
• Used for boils, piles, rheumatism, cough, hypertension, whooping
cough, mumps and pimples.
• Cough and thrush: Infusion of flowers, 40 grams to a pint of
boiling water, 4 glasses of tea daily.
• For fevers, fruit made into syrup used as a cooling drink.
• The fruit has been used for a variety of maladies: beriberi,
cough, prevention of scurvy.
• Infusion of leaves also drank as a protective tonic after childbirth.
• In Malaysia, leaves are used for venereal
diseases.
• In Java, a conserve of fruit used for beriberi, biliousness, coughs.
• In Indonesia, leaves used for
boils, diabetes, mumps, fever.
• In French Guyana, fruit decoction or syrup use for hepatitis,
diarrhea, fever and other inflammatory conditions.
Others
• Because of high
oxalic acid content, fruit used to remove stains from clothing and for
washing hands, removing rust and stains from metal blades.
Studies
• Hypoglycemic / Hypotriglyceridemic / Anti-Atherogenic
/ Anti-Lipid Peroxidative:
Effects of Averrhoa bilimbi leaf extract on blood glucose and lipids
in streptozotocin-diabetic rats: Study showed
that AB extract has hypoglycemic, hypotriglyceridemic, anti-lipid peroxidative
and anti-atherogenic properties in STZ-diabetic rats.
 • Antioxidant / Antimicrobial Activities:
The scavenging of NO by the extract of AC fruits was dependent on concentration
and stage of ripening. Extracts showed antimicrobial activity against
E coli, Salmonella typhi, staph aureus and bacillus cereus.
• Phytochemicals / Antimicrobial:
Phytochemical screening of fruit extracts yielded flavonoids, saponins
and triterpenoids but no alkaloids. The chloroform and methanol fruit
extracts were active againsxt Aeromonas hydrophilia, E coli, K pneumonia,
S cerrevisiae, S aureus, Strep agalactiae and B subtilis. In conclusion,
AB fruits possess potential antibacterial activities that warrants further
studies.
• Anti-Diabetic:
Study showed the aqueous fraction was more potent than the butanol fraction
in the amelioration of hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia in a high fat
diet-fed STZ diabetic rats and suggests the AF as the potential source
for isolation of the active principle for oral antidiabetic therapy.
• Antibacterial:
Study of the aqueous extract of AB leaves and fruits showed antibacterial
activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antibacterial
activity could be associated with the presence of bioactive compounds
of the flavonoids type, like luteolin and apigenin. The results suggest
further studies to isolate and identify the responsible compounds.
• Anti-Hyperlipidemic:
Study showed the fruit and its water extract, but not the alcohol and hexane extracts, to have remarkable antihypercholesterolemic activity. Results suggest the fruit can be used as a dietary ingredient to treat hyperlipidemia.
• Hepatoprotective / Antioxidant:
Study of a methanolic extract of leaves in carbon tetrachloride intoxicated rats showed significant inhibition of biochemical alterations, comparable to the standard drug.
• Antifertility:
Study in mice showed the kamias fruit as a potential source of antifertility drug. A butanol fraction of the ethanol extract exhibited a higher reduction in fertility rate.The activity may be due to either or both of the steroidal glucosides and potassium oxalate constituents.
• Antidiabetic Properties:
Study evaluated the antidiabetic activity of ABe in STZ-induced diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats. ABe increased glucose tolerance in OGTT testing and showed potent hypoglycemic, hypotriglyceridemic, and anti-lipid peroxidative and anti-atherogenic activities.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
Seasonal fruiting.
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