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    Aratiles

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    Marlene Roullo
    The document describes the Muntingia calabura plant, commonly known as Aratiles or Jamaica cherry. It is a fast-growing tree native to tropical America that has been widely introduced elsewhere. The tree produces white flowers and edible red berries. The leaves, bark, and flowers have various traditional medicinal uses. It is cultivated for its fruit but also grows readily in disturbed, low-quality soils and can become invasive.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Aratiles

    Uploaded by

    Marlene Roullo
    2K views6 pages
    The document describes the Muntingia calabura plant, commonly known as Aratiles or Jamaica cherry. It is a fast-growing tree native to tropical America that has been widely introduced elsewhere. The tree produces white flowers and edible red berries. The leaves, bark, and flowers have various traditional medicinal uses. It is cultivated for its fruit but also grows readily in disturbed, low-quality soils and can become invasive.

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    The document describes the Muntingia calabura plant, commonly known as Aratiles or Jamaica cherry. It is a fast-growing tree native to tropical America that has been widely introduced elsewhere. The tree produces white flowers and edible red berries. The leaves, bark, and flowers have various traditional medicinal uses. It is cultivated for its fruit but also grows readily in disturbed, low-quality soils and can become invasive.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    2K views6 pages

    Aratiles

    Uploaded by

    Marlene Roullo
    The document describes the Muntingia calabura plant, commonly known as Aratiles or Jamaica cherry. It is a fast-growing tree native to tropical America that has been widely introduced elsewhere. The tree produces white flowers and edible red berries. The leaves, bark, and flowers have various traditional medicinal uses. It is cultivated for its fruit but also grows readily in disturbed, low-quality soils and can become invasive.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    Aratiles

    Muntingia calabura Linn.


    CHERRY TREE

    Botany
    Aratiles is a fast growing tree, 5 to 10 meters high, with spreading branches.
    Leaves are hairy, sticky, alternate, distichous, oblong-ovate to broadly oblong-
    lanceolate, 8 to 13 centimeters long, with toothed margins, pointed apex and
    inequilateral base, one side rounded and the other acute. Flowers are about 2
    centimeters in diameter, white, extra-axillary, solitary or in pairs. Sepals are 5,
    green, reflexed, lanceolate, about 1 centimeter long. Petals are white,
    obovate, 1 centimeter long, deciduous and spreading. Fruit is a berry,
    rounded, about 1.5 centimeter in diameter, red on ripening, smooth, fleshy,
    sweet and many seeded.

    Distribution
    - Naturalized, widely distributed, growing in and about towns.
    - Introduced from tropical America.
    - Also reported in Thailand and Java.

    Properties
    - Antispasmodic and emollient.
    - Studies have shown antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, analgesic,
    cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, cardioprotective, antibacterial,
    antiulcer, insecticidal, tyrosinase-inhibitory and antifungal properties.

    Parts utilized
    Bark, leaves and flowers.

    Uses
    Edibility
    - The ripe fruit is very popular among Filipino children.
    - Fruits processed into jam; leaves used for making tea.
    Folkloric
    - Flowers are antispasmodic. Decoction of flowers for abdominal cramps.
    - Decoction used as emollient.
    - Flowers used as antiseptic and to treat spasms.
    - Leaves used as antiseptics or antipruritic; also, to treat abdominal cram
    - Also used to relieve colds and headaches.
    - In the Antiles, used as antispasmodic.
    - In Martinique, bark decoction is mucilaginous and used as emollient.
    - In Peru, leaves used for treatment of gastric ulcers and to reduce prostate
    gland swelling.
    Others
    - Bark used for making rope.
    - Wood is compact, fine-grained, moderately strong and light in weight and
    durable, used for carpentry work.
    - Fast growing tree that makes for a favorable shade tree.

    SOURCE :
    STUART X CHANCE : PHILIPPINE MEDICINAL PLANTS
    LINK:
    http://www.stuartxchange.org/Aratiles.html
    Characteristics of the Species Muntingia
    calabura L.
    2.1- Description
    + The plants
    Jamaica cherry (also called Aratiles) is a fast growing tree, 5 to
    10 meters high, with spreading branches.
    + The leaves
    Leaves are hairy, sticky, alternate, distichous, oblong-ovate to
    broadly oblong-lanceolate, 8 to 13 centimeters long, with toothed
    margins, pointed apex and inequilateral base, one side rounded and the
    other acute.
    + The flowers
    Flowers are about 2 centimeters in diameter, white, extra-
    axillary, solitary or in pairs. Sepals are 5, green, reflexed, lanceolate,
    about 1 centimeter long. Petals are white, obovate, 1 centimeter long,
    deciduous and spreading.
    + The fruits
    Fruit is a berry, rounded, about 1.5 centimeter in diameter, red
    on ripening, smooth, fleshy, sweet and many seeded.
    The fruit is edible, sweet, and juicy, and contains a large
    number of tiny yellow seeds.
    + The seeds
    The fruit contains a large number of tiny (0.5-mm)
    yellow seeds.
    2.2- Origin and Distribution
    + Origin
    Jamaica cherry (Muntingia calabura) is native to southern Mexico,
    the Caribbean, Central America, and western South America south
    to Peru and Bolivia.
    + Distribution
    Jamaica cherry or Kerson trees (Muntingia calabura) grows in
    Mexico, the Caribbean, Asia, Indonesia, South America, Japan,
    Philippines, China, India, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and many
    other places. It’s also known in the states as Strawberry Tree, Panama
    berry, Jamaican cherry, Bajelly tree and Singapore cherry…
    It turns cherry plant can not only be found in Indonesia, but also
    in other countries like the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Cambodia,
    Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, and India.

    2.3- The Biological characteristics of cherry tree

    + Habitat
    In the Philippines, the trees are commonly visited by different
    species of birds. It also attracts bats and nocturnal animals that feasts
    on the sweet juice of the fruit. This aides for the fast widespread
    propagation of the muntingia in the Philippine forests which sometimes
    overpopulate an area in just a couple of years. With just enough sun
    and water, it grows with little or no care. This is apparent in the island
    of Maldives, where Muntingia, locally known as jeymu grows without
    any care in very salty sand. The Malaysian common name ceri
    kampung means "village cherry".
    In Malaysia the muntingia tree is found in many urban areas lining
    the sides of streets in front of rows of houses. There,
    the Muntingia produces great quantities of fruit.
    It is a pioneer species that thrives in poor soil, able to tolerate
    acidic and alkaline conditions and drought. Its seeds are dispersed by
    birds and fruit bats. It is cultivated for its edible fruit, and has
    become naturalised in some other parts of the tropics, including
    southeastern Asia. As a pioneer plant, it could help condition the soil
    and make it habitable to other plants. However, it might also be
    considered as an invasive species since it might outcompete indigenous
    plants.
    + Growing
    Aratilis or Muntingia calabura grows only in few regions of the
    world. It can be easily grown and found in South and Central America
    and few parts of Caribbean. The interesting part about this fruit is that
    it has several names depending on the countries where it’s grown. You
    might’ve had the great experience of trying it and you wouldn’t know
    about it. It is known as Jamaica cherry, Singapore cherry, Panama berry,
    manzanitas or many more.
    This is a fast-growing fruit tree, 2 years to be a 3-m tree. After
    the flowers are pollinated, the berries are fast-growing. Once they
    ripen, the flowers start to bloom again. After one crop of berries is
    harvested, the plant continues to flower and produce fruit. The fruit
    tree will grow for many years.

    SOURCE :
    THE WORLD WIDE FRUITS

    LINKS:
    https://www.worldwidefruits.com/muntingia-calabura-jamaica-cherry.html

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