Kepel Apple

Overview

A beautiful ornamental tree with its new leaves changing from light pink into a burgundy red colour before turning a brilliant green. It is claimed that, after eating the aromatic fruits of Kepple apple, one's whole body is permeated with the smell of roses. In Java, its use was traditionally restricted to the consorts of the sultan of Jogja. It is indigenous to and sometimes cultivated for its edible fruit in Java, Indonesia, and is grown also in South-East Asia throughout Malesia as far as the Solomons.

Vernacular Names

Kecindul or Burahol (Indonesia) and Kepel (Dutch, French).

Agroecology

Kepel is a tropical species, grows in its native habitat in hot, humid secondary forest on deep, moist clay soils in Java and can still grow in sandy or limestone soils. It is found from sea level to an elevation of 600 m. Prefers a fertile, moist, acid soil and a position in full sun or light shade.

Morphology

• Trunk - up to 40 cm in diameter with dark grey-brown to black, bark characteristically covered with numerous thick tubercles.
• Leaves - elliptic-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, with a distinct mid-rib, soft pink to burgundyred when young, dark green, glabrous and thin leathery when mature, borne on 1.5 cm long petioles.
• Flowers - unisexual, green turning whitish, fascicled on tubercles, male flowers are ramiflorous on older branches and female flowers cauliflorous on the lower part of the trunk as well as ramiflorous on the main branches.
• Fruits - sub-globose to obovoid, brownish, 5–6 cm in diameter, juicy, edible, yellow pulp.
• Seeds - 4–6 ellipsoid seeds, 3–3.5 cm long.

Cultivation

Propagated by seeds.

Chemical Constituents

Phenanthrene lactams, flavonoids (3,7,3',4'- tetrahidroksi -5-metil flavon), alkaloid, terpenoid, kaempferol-3-O-rhamnoside, polifenol, quinon.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• It has anticancer, antihyperuricemic and antioxidant activities.
• The peel has the best adsorbent ability.
• In Indonesia traditional medicine, the fruit pulp is a diuretic and is use to prevent kidney inflammation and treat gout.
• It is said that the orange, juicy pulp of the fruit gives the fragrance of violets to body excretions (urine, transpiration, breath). Hence it served aristocratic ladies as a perfume and a family-planning agent.
• The fruit pulp is commonly used in Jamu “awet ayu”, by the local cosmetic industry.
• The pulp has been reported to cause temporary sterility in women.
• It has has been used traditionally as a perfume in Indonesia by aristocratic ladies in Java.
• The timber is suitable for household articles; the straight trunk, after immersion in water for several months, is used in house building and is durable for more than 50 years.