`Som Kandarn` (Garcinia atroviridis Griff.)

‘Som Kandarn’
(Garcinia atroviridis Griff.)
A High Potential Garcinia Species for Mixed Fruit Cropping
Orchard and Backyard Garden in Humid Tropical Environments
July 2015
Montree Issarakraisila
School of Agricultural Technology
Project Walailak University, Tasala
Nakhon Si Thammarat 80160
Thailand
Songpol Somsri
UNEP/GEF, National Management
Unit, Department of Agriculture
Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900
Thailand
‘Som Kandarn’ (Garcinia atroviridis Griff.), a High Potential
Garcinia Species for Mixed Fruit Cropping Orchard and
Backyard Garden in Humid Tropical Environments
Introduction
Kiriwong village is a small village surrounded by the Kao Luang
mountain forest landscape of Nakorn Si Thammarat province in the southern
region of Thailand. The village is known for very rich natural tropical
ecosystems with mixed multispecies tropical fruit tree orchards like mangosteen
(Garcinia mangostana L.), durian (Durio zibethinus Murr.), rambutan
(Nephelium lappaceum), and langsat (Lansium domesticum) along with bitter
beans called petai from Parkia speciosa, a leguminous tree (Figure 1).
Kiriwong village was taken up as a site for the Conservation and Sustainable
Use of Cultivated and Wild Tropical Fruit Diversity: Promoting Sustainable
Livelihoods, Food Security and Ecosystem Services Project. The project
funded by UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme / GEF, Global
Environment Facility during 2009 - 2014 was scoped on fruit trees of 4 genus,
Mangifera spp., Garcinia spp., Nephelium spp., and Citrus spp. ‘Som
Kandarn’, the local name of a cultivar of Garcinia atroviridis Griff., has been
found in Kiriwong village, therefore, the characteristics of ‘Som Kandarn’ and
its developed products were investigated.
Figure 1. The scenery of a mixed multispecies tropical fruit tree orchard in
Kiriwong village.
Origin and distribution
‘Som Kandarn’, the local name of a cultivar of Garcinia atroviridis
Griff., has been found in Kiriwong village for more than 100 years at the
mountainous forest according to the local people. Some big old trees were also
found naturally near by the riverside at the lower land possibly the seedlings
came with the tide in the river. Therefore, local people believed that Kiriwong
mountainous area is an original area of ‘Som Kandarn’ which named according
to the meaning of sour fruit which could grow in the unsuitable areas. The
similar cultivar of G. atroviridis has been also found in the west coast of south
of Thailand in Trang, Phungha and Phuket provinces. But the local name is
called ‘Som Khwaai’ which named according to the sour fruit tree for shading
of buffalo due to its width and tall canopy. G. atroviridis is a native to
Peninsula Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Assam (India) (M. Osman and
A.R. Milan, 2006). However, another Garcinia called ‘Som Khaek’ which has
been found in the south of Thailand near Thailand and Malaysian border is
‘Garcinia Cambogia’ (Garcinia cambogia Desr.) due to the differences of
flower and fruit characteristics from ‘Som Kandarn’ (further described below).
‘Som Kandarn’ plant characteristics
The plant characteristics of ‘Som Kandarn’ is shown in Figure 2 (tree
canopy, leaf, flower and fruit). ‘SomKandarn’ is a large lofty tree 10 -15 m
high. The leaves are large, dark glossy green and opposite with 10 -15 cm wide
and 20 - 30 cm long. The flower is a tube shape of yellow green sepals but the
petals are not found. The stigma is yellow and big while the anthers are
aborted. The fruit is un-uniform round shape 10 -12 cm diameter. The fruit
colour is deep green when matured and becomes yellow after ripening. The
fruit is big and weigh between 300 – 700 g. A fruit contains 5 – 8 seeds
embedded in pulp tissue. The plant characteristics of ‘Som Kandarn’ are
different from those of ‘Som Khaek’ (G.cambogia). The leaves of of ‘Som
Khaek’ (Figure 3) are smaller and more narrowly oblong compared with the
leaves of ‘Som Kandarn’. ‘Som Khaek’ has a reddish petal and a smaller fruit
(6 -10 cm wide) with nearly round shape, fluted with 12 -16 ribs and grooves
(Osman and Milan, 2006).
‘Som Kandarn’ has been known as a most well and easy growing fruit
tree in Kiriwong conditions (Figure 4) even in unfertile soils that why the local
people named it. The plants were grown from seedlings and took about 7 years
to begin flowering. At present some growers have changed to use grafted
young plants instead of seedlings because there are male and female trees
separately in ‘Som Kandarn’. Flowering season generally is April to May
while the harvesting period is during August to September. Estimated yields of
‘Som Kandarn’ were about 50 – 100 kg per tree depending on size of tree and
environmental conditions of that year. In the last ten years, the number of
grown trees in the village increased continuously both in the mountainous and
backyard orchards.
Figure 2. Pictures of tree canopy (left top), leaves (right top), flower (left
bottom) and fruit (right bottom) of ‘Som Kandarn’ grown in Kiriwong village,
Nakhon Si Thammarat, south of Thailand.
Figure 3. Pictures of leaves (left top), flowers (right top), mature fruit (left
bottom) and ripened fruit (right bottom) of ‘Som Khaek’ (G.cambogia) grown
in the south of Thailand near Thailand and Malaysian border.
Figure 4. Picture of one year old ‘Som Kandarn’ seedling (far left) ready to be
grown and the less of pictures are the pictures of very old big ‘Som Kandarn’
tree grown nearby the canal in Kiriwong village.
Uses of ‘Som Kandarn’
Both young leaves and the slices of dried fruit of ‘Som Kandarn’ have
been used as a sour ingredient in place of tamarind pulp for different kinds of
local food such as curry and soup. Most of the fruit are consumed as the slices
of dried fruit. The full mature but unripe fruits are cut into slices and dried for a
few days (Figure 5). A kilogram of fresh fruit was about 100 grams dried fruit
slices or 10% of fresh fruit. Then the slices of dried fruit are used as a food
ingredient or used to make a cold drink. Nowadays, the majority of dried fruit
slices are sold for a material of health products to reduce body weight (Figure
6). The chemical component of ‘Som Kandarn’ fruit has been believed that
similar to those found in Garcinia Cambogia or ‘Som Khaek’ specially
hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which well known as the active ingredient to reduce
body weight (Chuah et al., 2013).
Figure 5. Pictures show the steps of making slices of dried fruit of ‘Som
Kandarn’ green mature fruits.
Products development from ‘Som Kandarn’
A part form the uses of ‘Som Kandarn’ mentioned above, a community
product development group called ‘Kiriwong Herbal Group’ has developed
soap using dried fruit of ‘Som Kandarn’ as a main ingredient for its health
properties (Figure 6). In the local community pieces of dried sliced fruit are
used to make a cold drink due to its good taste, reducing thirsty, moistened
throat and medicinal properties of laxatives. To expand and promote the
consumption of Som Kandarn fruit, various formulas of healthy cold and hot
drinks were developed in this project such as the boiled dried fruit water mixed
with brown sugar or sweetener or honey or brown sugar plus juice from flowers
of butterfly pea.
Figure 6. Pictures show various products developed from the slices of dried
fruit of ‘Som Kandarn’.
Market potential for ‘Som Kandarn’
The fresh fruit of ‘Som Kandarn’ was sold locally at the price between 10
– 25 baht ($ 0.3-0.8) per kilogram depending on the time in the season. The
slices of dried fruit were sold at the price between 200 – 250 baht ($ 6.7-8.0) per
kilogram. In the resent years, the demand for ‘Som Kandarn’ fruit was high and
the growers could earn satisfied incomes from selling fresh or dried fruits due to
the cost of fruit production were very low. The trees grew well in humid
tropical environments and no serious pest has been found. The main cost were
from harvesting and fruit transportation cost because of such a tall trees of ‘Som
Kandarn’ which grown in the mountainous orchards.
Conclusions
‘Som Kandarn’, a cultivar of Garcinia atroviridis Griff., grows well in
humid tropical environments even in unfertile soils and no serious pest has been
found. Fruit size and yields of ‘Som Kandarn’ tress are also rather high. While
the market especially for health products still have a high demand of dried fruit.
The most of fruit are used as dried fruit that is the strength of ‘Som Kandarn’
crop. The slices of dried fruit could be kept at least 3 to 6 months in room
temperature. Therefore, ‘Som Kandarn’ is a high potential Garcinia sp. for
mixed fruit cropping orchard and backyard garden in humid tropical
environments. While the academic data for fruit crop production and product
development in ‘Som Kandarn’ need further investigation.
Acknowledgements
The project of this investigation was supported by UNEP, United Nations
Environment Programme / GEF, Global Environment Facility, Department of
Agriculture, Thailand and Tropical fruit Research Unit, Walailak University.
Literature Cited
Chuah, L.O., Ho, W.Y., Beh, B.K. and Yeap, S.K. 2013. Updates on
antiobesity effects of Garcinia origin (-)-HCA. Evid Based Complement
Alternate Med., 2013 PMC 3748738.
Osman, M.G. and Milan, A.R. 2006. Mangosteen – Garcinia mangostana.
Southamton Centre For Underutilised Crops, United of Southamton,
Southamton, UK.