Botany
Medium-sized tree growing to a height
of 20 m. Leaves are leathery, oblong, up to 20 cm long, with a round
base and acute tips. The blade is glossy green, smooth above and softly
hairy below. Female flowers are axillary and solitary, larger than the
male. Fruits are fleshy, globose, up to 8-10 cm diameter, densely covered
with short brown hairs. The pulp is edible. The fruit hairs have to
be rubbed off before eating as it can cause peri-oral itching and irritation.
Distribution
In forests, at low and medium altitudes.
A shade tree, it is planted along roads and parks.
Parts utilized:
Roots and leaves.
Constituents
and Properties
• Study: Triterpenes from D. blancoi
• Considered astringent .
• Fruit is high in tannin
Uses
Folkloric
Bark and leaves used for itch skin
ailments.
Decoction of bark for coughs.
Bark used for fevers, dysentery and diarrhea.
In Southease Asia, juice
of unripe fruit used for wounds.
Oil from seeds used for diarrhea and dysentery.
Infusion of fruit used as gargle in aphthous stomatitis.
In Bangladesh, juice of
bark and leave used for snakebites.
Bark and leaves used as eyewash.
In the Guianas, used for colds, diarrhea, heart problems, hypertension,
spider bites, stomach aches, diabetes, eczema. Source
Others
Fruit is edible, the tannin content
declining as it ripens.
A good source of vitamins A, C, and minerals.
Studies
• Antioxidant: Antioxidant
and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1)-induced effects of selected Taiwanese plants:
12 selected indigenous Taiwanese plants, including Diospyros discolor,
were studied for their antioxidant acitivty, superoxide radicals scavenging
and reducing power activities. D discolor extracts, among others, showed
to contain abundant phenolic constituents suggesting a potential source
of natural antioxidants.
• Bioactive Triterpenes / Antibacterial / Analgesic / Anti-inflammatory: Ethyl acetate extract of air-dried leaves yielded (1) isoarborinol methyl ether, (2) a mixture of a-amyrin palmitate, a-amyrin palmitoleate, ß-amyrin palmitate and ß-amyrin palmitoleate and squalene. Compounds 1 and 2 showed antibacterial activity against E coli, P aeruginosa, C albicans, Staph aureus and T mentagrophytes. Sample 2 showed analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities.
• Chemical Composition: Study yielded 96 compounds; the fruit characterized by many esters – benzyl butyrate (33.9%), butyl butyrate (12.5% and (E)-cinnamyl butyrate (6.8%).
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Availability
Cultivated and wild-crafted.
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