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Botany
Rimas is a large tree with milky sap, growing
to 15 meters tall. Leaves are alternate, large, coriaceous, ovate to oblong,
up to 50 centimeters long, deeply pinnate, and acuminate. Stipules
are large and deciduous. Fruit
is globose to ellipsoid, up to 12 to 20 centimeters in wide, 12 to 16 centimeters long, the rind green, yellowish-green or pale yellow. seedless, with the surface marked with polygonal faces.
Distribution
- Common plant in and around towns in the Philippines.
- Usually cultivated for its edible fruits.
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Occasionally planted as an ornamental in parks and gardens.
- Occurs from the Malay Peninsula to Malaysia.
Parts utilized
Bark, leaves, fruit.
Constituents
- Study has yielded papayotin, enzyme
and artocarpin.
- Nutritional composition of 100 g edible portion of seeds yield: (8)
- Water 47.7% (cooked), 61.9% (fresh)
- Protein 8.1g (c), 7.9 g (f)
- Carbohydrate 38.2 g (C), 26.6 (f)
- Fat 4.9 g (c), 2.5 g (f)
- Calcium 46.6 mg (c), 48.3 mg (f)
- Phosphorus 186 mg (c), 189 mg (f)
- Iron 2.3 mg (c,f)
- Niacin 2.1 mg (c), 1.8 mg (f)
- Thiamine 0.33 to 1.3
- Vitamin C 1.9 to 22.6
- Phytochemical analysis yielded tannins, phenolics, glycosides, saponins, steroids, terpenoids, and anthraquinones in cold and hot leaf extracts.
(10)
Uses
Edibility / Nutritional
- Crop considered a carbohydrate food source.
- Fruit can be fried, boiled, candied or cooked as a vegetable.
- High in starch, it is also high in Vitamin B, with fair amounts of B
and C.
- In the Caribbean, prepared boiled, steam or roasted, used with salt-cured meats, coconut milk, and dasheen leaves, in the creation of regional dishes. (8)
- In the Philippines, eaten boiled, sliced with coconut and sugar as a sweet, or as candied breadfruit. (8)
- In West Africa, seeds from ripe fruits and boiled or roasted with salt, sometimes made into a puree.
Folkloric
• Decoction of the bark used
as vulnerary (wound healing). In the Visayas, decoction of the bark
used in dysentery.
• Used as emollient.
• In the Caribbean,
leaves are used to relieve pain and inflammation.
• In Jamaican folk
medicine, leaf decoction used for hypertension.
• Latex is massaged into skin to treat broken bones and sprains; bandaged on the spine to relieve sciatica. Used to treat skin ailments and thrush. Diluted latex used internally for diarrhea, stomach aches and dysentery. Latex and juice from crushed leaves used for ear infections. Bark used to treat headaches in several Pacific Islands. (8)
• In the West Indies decoction of yellowing leaf is used to treat hypertension. Tea is also used to control diabetes. (8)
Others
• Insect repellent: Male inflorescences are dried and used as mosquito repellent. Latex is mixed with coconut oil for trapping houseflies in Kosrae. (8)
• Caulk: Gum used to caulk canoes to make them watertight. and to prepare wooden surfaces for painting. (8)
Studies
• Phytochemical: (1)
Study concluded that the starch of Artocarpus altilis showed a high
degree of purity. Physiochemical and rheological characteristics suggest
the starch could be useful in products that require long heating process,
with an excellent digestibility that might be advantageous for medical
and food use. (2) Study showed percent recoveries of amino acid, fatty
acid and carbohydrate content showed 72.5%, 68.2% and 81.4%. The starch content is 15.52 g/100 g fresh weight.
• Cytoprotective: Study yielded cytoprotective components - ß-sitosterol and six
flavonoids with good potential for medicinal applications.
• Antiinflammatory:
Extract of breadfruit leaves was shown to contain compounds with significant
anti-inflammatory activities.
• Phenolic Compounds / Cytotoxicity:
Study isolated isoprenylated flavonoids - morusin,
artonin E, cycloartobiloxanthone and artonol B - that showed high toxicity
against Artemia salina. Result of cytotoxicity test showed the presence
of an isoprenyl moiety in the C-3 position in the flavone skeleton,
an important factor for its activity.
• Negative Inotropic Effect:
Leaf extract study exerted a weak, negative chronotropic and inotropic
effect in vivo in the rat. The mechanism of action of the inotropic
agent was not cholinergic and may involve decoupling of excitation and
contraction. (6)
• Antihypertensive: Study evaluated an aqueous extract of leaves for possible antihypertensive mechanisms and effect on the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme activities on Sprague-Dawley rats. Results showed negative chronotropic and hypotensive effects through a-adrenoreceptor and Ca+- channel antagonism. Drug adversity are unlikely if the extract if consumed with other medications reliant on CYP3A4 and CYP2D6 metabolism.(9)
• ACE-Inhibitory Activity: Study evaluated the effect of A. altilis leaf extracts on angiotensin-converting enzyme activity. An ethanol extract showed potent ACE-inhibitory activity, supporting its use in folk medicine for the treatment of hypertension. (10)
• New Prenylated Aurone / Radical Scavenging Activity: Study isolated a new prenylated aurone, artocarpaurone, together with 8 known compounds. Artocarpaurone showed moderate nitric oxide radical scavenging activity, white two prenylated chalcones showed radical moderate scavenging activity in the DPPH assay. (11)
• Anti-Cancer / Breast Cancer (T47D) Cells: Study evaluated Sukun wood extract in human T47D breast cancer cells. Results showed the extract decreased cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner, inducing apoptosis and sub-G1 phase formation in breast cancer cells, suggesting a potential as an anti-cancer agent. (12)
• Antitubercular / Antimalarial / Anticancer: Study of root extracts yielded nine prenylated flavones: Cycloartocarpin, artocarpin, and chaplashin from root stems, and morusin, cudraflavone B, cycloartobiloxanthone, artonin E, cudraflavone C and artobiloxanthone from the root barks. The isolated compounds exhibited antitubercular and antiplasmodial activities, with moderate cytotoxicity against KB (human oral epidermoid carcinoma) and BC (human breast cancer) cell lines. (13)
Availability
Wildcrafted.
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