Botany
Tampoi is a small tree growing to about 8 meters high. Leaves are narrowly oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, 12.5 to 20 centimeters long, 2 to 4 centimeters wide, narrowed at both ends. Flowers are large, strongly scented, greenish-white, 5 to 7 centimeters across, borne in groups of 2 to 8 at the ends of twigs. Fruit is rounded, 3.5 to 5 centimeters diameter, dull yellow and tinged with pink.
Distribution
- Cultivated as a shade tree, in and about towns throughout the Philippines.
- Occasionally naturalized.
- Prehistoric introduction.
- Also occurring in Indo-Malaya and
cultivated in other tropical countries.
Constituents
- Bark contains tannin, 12.4 %.
- Bark yields an alkaloid, jambosine.
- Root bark contains jambosine and oleoresin.
- Fruit contains 3.45% dextrose; the seeds, 3% tannin and 0.019% gallic acid.
Properties
- Considered as digestive, stimulant, cooling.
- Flowers considered cooling.
Parts used
Whole plant.
Uses
Edibility
- Fruit is dry, somewhat sweet, with a faint odor of rose.
- Commonly eaten right out, it is also used in making stews, preserves, jellies and jams.
- In Jamaica, sliced fruits are candied by stewing in cinnamon-flavored heavy sugar syrup.
Folkloric
- In Indo-China, all parts are used as stimulant, digestive and as a remedy for tooth problems.
- In Upper Burma, leaves are boiled and used as a remedy for sore eyes.
- Powdered leaves rubbed on the body in smallpox.
- Leaf decoction used as diuretic, expectorant, and treatment for rheumatism.
- In Cambodia, infusion of leaves given for fever.
- In India, used to treat infections. Fruit is used as tonic for the brain and liver; infusion used as diuretic.
- Conserve of flowers considered cooling.
- Seeds used for diarrhea, dysentery and catarrh.
- In El Salvador, pulverized seeds used for diabetes.
- In Columbia, seeds used for its anesthetic property.
- In Cuba, roots used for epilepsy.
- In Ayurveda, plant pacifies vitiated pitta, diarrhea, colic, wounds, ulcers, stomatitis, and general debility.
 Others
- Ritual: In Buddhism, the Rose Apple Tree is considered sacred, referred to as the Enlightenment Tree.
- Tanning / Dye: Bark used for tanning and yields a brown dye.
- Timber: Used to make furniture, construction beams, frames for musical instruments.
- Perfumery: Essential oil distilled from leaves used in perfumery.
Studies
• Antibacterial: Study of S jambos leaf extract showed inhibition of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, the latter more susceptible than the former.
• Antinociceptive: Study showed Syzygium jambos extract has remarkable analgesic effects on both cutaneous and deep muscle pain not mediated by opioid receptors in an efficacy higher than that shown by diclofenac.
• Antimicrobial / Tannins: Study show SJ extracts showed antibacterial activity against S aureus, Y enterocolitica, Coagulase-negative staph. The activity seemed related to the high tannin content.
• Antidermatophytic / Triterpenoids: Study yielded known triterpenoids - friedelin, b-amyrin acetate, betulinic acid and lupeol. Results showed antidermatophytic activity against three species: Microsporum audounii, Tricophyton soudanense and T mentagrophytes.
• Radical Scavenging / Dihydrochalcones: Study of leave extracts yielded three dihydrochalcones - phloretin 4'-O-methylester(2'6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone, myrigalone G and myrigalone B which showed radical scavenging properties towards the DPPH assay.
• Hypotensive: Study of aqueous fraction of the young boiled leaves extract of Syzygium jambos, treated with ethyl acetate, has an important hypotensive effect.
• Antimicrobial: Study evaluated the antimicrobial efficacy of S. jambos against 8 different microorganisms, viz., S aureus, B subtilis, E Coli, K pneumonia, P vulgaris, P aeruginosa, S typhi and V cholera. Different extracts showed varying degrees of inhibitory activity. Overall the acetone extract was found to be more effective.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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