Medicinal Plant: Caimito (Chrysophyllum cainito)

Botany
A tree with a spreading crown, growing to a height of 15 meters with numerous slender branches. Young tips are copper-collored and covered with hairs. Leaves are leathery, pointed at the tip, blunt or rounded at the base and covered with silky, golden-brown soft hairs. The flowers are purplish-white, small and clustered in the axils of leaves. The fruit is large and rounded, 6 to 10 cm in diameter, shiny and smooth, purplish or light-green skinned, with a translucent whitish or purplish pulp surrounding flatterned seeds about 1 to 1.5 cm long. The flesh is fibrous, sweet, mild and pleasant tasting.

Chemical constituents and characteristics
Seed contains saponin, pouterin, and a bitter principle (lucumin) and a fixed oil.
Leaves contain an amorphous bitter principle, some alkaloids and no saponin.
Pectoral, tonic, stimulant.
Bark is rich in tannin.
Seed is tonic, diuretic and febrifuge.
Distribution
Cultivated for its edible fruit.
Parts used and preparation
Seeds, leaves, bark, fruit.
Uses
Folkloric
• Dysentery: Decoction of the bark.
• Tonic: Infusion of the bark is tonic and refreshing.
• Latex is used for abscesses.
• Dried latex used as antihelminthic.
• In some countries, the fruit is used for diabetes.
• Bitter seed sometimes used as tonic, for diarrhea and fevers.
• Fruit eaten for inflammation in laryngitis and pneumonia.
• Used for diabetes.
• Decoction used for angina.
• In the Ivory Coast, decoction of leaves used for hypertension.
• In Venezuela, unripe fruit used for intestinal problems.
• Decoction of bark used as tonic and stimulant; used for diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhages and treatment of gonorrhea.
• Cubans in Miami reported to use the leaf decoction for cancer treatment.
• In Brazil, bark latex used on abscesses; and as a potent vermifuge when dried and powdered.
Studies
• Antioxidant: (1) Polyphenolic Antioxidants from the Fruits of Chrysophyllum cainito: A study on fruit extracts yielded nine known phenolic antioxidants. (2) Study of extracts of 12 edible fruits showed nine to exhibit high antioxidant activity; C cainito yielded cyanidin-3-O-ß-glucopyranoside, an anthocyaninc antioxidant.
• Vasorelaxant: A preliminary study on the relaxant effect of the crude extract and fractions of the bark of Chrysophyllum cainito L. in isolated rat thoracic aorta: Methanolic bark extract study on rats showed vasorelaxant activity on the smooth muscle.
• Lectin Activity: Plant samples of 178 species and 62 families were studied for lectin activity. Potent lectins possessing more than 100,000 unites per gram were found in the fruits extracts of C arabica and Chrysophyllum cainito.
• Antidiabetic Activity: Study of the aqueous decoction of C cainito leaves showed hypoglycemic activity at doses of ? 20 g/l. From 30 g/l, the plant would exert a toxic effect.
• Hypotensive Effect: Phytochemical study attributes the hypotensive effect flavonoids with vasodilation effect and inhibition of adrenergic receptors.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated for its edible fruit.
Seasonal market produce.
Tinctures of bark, leaves and fruits in the cybermarket.
Source(s):
Philippine Medicinal Plants

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