Common Name:

General Information

Shirakiopsis indica is an evergreen shrub or a tree that usually grows up to 18 metres tall, but can reach up to 30 metres. The thorny bole is twisting, it can be up to 40cm in diameter with spines at the base and buttresses up to 2 metres high, branching from the base[, ].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of materials. In view of the variety of uses, this species is considered as having an interesting potential as a crop for places too wet for other crops[].

Known Hazards

The fruit wall as well as other parts of the plant contains a toxic latex[]. The latex is copious in unripe fruits and less abundant in other parts of the plant[].
The green fruits are used as a fish poison[]. Aesculetin, a substance poisonous to fish, has been isolated from the fruit[].

Botanical References

Range

E. Asia - India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea and the western Pacific

Habitat

Very common to scattered along rivers and seashores; in gallery, tidal and mangrove forests; in primary and advanced secondary forests of swampy and seasonally inundated places; growing in clay, sand, mud; at elevations up to 75 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	15.00 m
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Plants can flower and ripen their fruit all year round[].

Edible Uses

The seeds contain a drying oil and can be eaten when ripe[, ]. The seeds are 11 - 13mm long and 7 - 8mm wide[].
The ripe seeds are used as vegetable or as condiment, but the fruit-wall should be removed carefully, because the latex it contains blisters the skin[].

Medicinal

Leaves have been applied to cure fever and gonorrhoea[]. An infusion of the leaves is taken as a treatment for gonorrhoea[].
The leaves are applied externally as a febrifuge[].

The "juice of the fruits" is applied by Kinomeri to cure toothache[, ].

A decoction of the root bark is used as a purgative and emetic[].

Other Uses

Fruits and leaves are boiled together with clothes as black dye, but also yellow-green colours can be obtained from them[].
The leaves are a traditional source of a greenish-yellow dye, that turns black upon boiling[].
The leaves can be used to prepare a dye, which gives yarn a greenish-yellow colour or rattan a dark colour. The dyed yarn will gain a black colour when buried in the mud. A black colour can also be obtained by mixing the dye with charcoal and coconut oil[]. This mixture was formerly used in Indonesia to dye artificial hair tassels or wigs made of pineapple fibre black. The dye is also mixed with other dyes[].

The seeds contain 50 - 60% of a greenish-yellow, drying oil[].

The hard, globose fruits are used by children as marbles[].

Sapwood and heartwoood homogenous, dirty white to pale yellow to straw-coloured, of moderate weight and hardness[]. The timber is used for canoes and is considered suitable for indoor work[].
The wood is used as fuel; it burns well[].

Propagation

Seed - very slow to germinate, taking 318 - 413 days[].

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