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Tropical Plant "Akee"
Blighia sapida
More
widely known for its poisonous properties than as an edible
fruit, the akee, Blighia sapida K. Konig (syn. Cupania
sapida Voigt.), of the family Sapindaceae, is sometimes
called ackee, akee apple, or vegetable brain (seso vegetal
in Spanish). Other Spanish names are arbol de seso,
palo de seso (Cuba); huevo vegetal and fruto
de huevo (Guatemala and Panama); arbor del huevo
and pera roja (Mexico); merey del diablo (Venezuela);
bien me sabe or pan y quesito (Colombia); akí
(Costa Rica). In Portuguese, it is castanha or
castanheiro de Africa. In French, it is arbre fricassé
or arbre a fricasser (Haiti); yeux de crabe
or ris de veau (Martinique). In Surinam it is known
as akie. On the Ivory Coast of West Africa, it is called
kaka or finzan; in the Sudan, finza. Elsewhere
in Africa it is generally known as akye, akyen or ishin,
though it has many other dialectal names. In the timber
trade, the wood is marketed as achin.
It
should be noted that the name "akee" may refer to the mamoncillo,
q.v., in Barbados. As a colloquial term for the mamoncillo
it may be a corruption of the Mayan "acche" which was applied
to several plants whose flowers attract honeybees.
Akee Description
The
tree, reaching 33 to 40 ft (10-12 m), is rather hand some,
usually with a short trunk to 6 ft ( 1.8 m) in circumference,
and a dense crown of spreading branches. Its bark is gray
and nearly smooth. The evergreen (rarely deciduous), alternate
leaves are compound with 3 to 5 pairs of oblong, obovate-oblong,
or elliptic leaflets, 6 to 12 in (15-30 cm) long, rounded
at the base, short-pointed at the apex; bright-green and glossy
on the upper surface, dull and paler and finely hairy on the
veins on the under side. Bisexual and male flowers, borne
together in simple racemes 3 to 7 in (7.5-17.5 cm) long, are
fragrant, 5 petalled, white and hairy. The fruit is a leathery,
pear shaped, more or less distinctly 3-lobed capsule 2 3/4
to 4 in (7-10 cm) long; basically yellow, more or less flushed
with bright-scarlet. When it is fully mature, it splits open
revealing 3 cream-colored, fleshy, glossy arils, crisp, somewhat
nutty-flavored, attached to the large, black, nearly round,
smooth, hard, shining seeds-nonnally 3; often 1 or 2 may be
aborted. The base of each aril is attached to the inside of
the stem-end of the "jacket" by pink or orange-red membranes.
Akee Origin
and Distribution
The
akee is indigenous to the forests of the Ivory Coast and Gold
Coast of West tropical Africa where it is little eaten but
various parts have domestic uses. In Ghana, the fruiting tree
is admired as an ornamental and is planted in villages and
along streets for shade. The akee was brought to Jamaica in
1793 by the renowned Captain Bligh to furnish food for the
slaves. It was readily adopted and became commonly grown in
dooryards and along roadsides and, to some extent, naturalized.
The arils still constitute a favorite food of the island and
the fruit is featured in a calypso despite the health hazards
associated with it. Canned arils are exported to the United
Kingdom where they are welcomed byJamaican immigrants. Importation
has been banned by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
The
akee was planted also in Trinidad and Haiti and some other
islands of the West Indies and the Bahamas and apparently
was carried by Jamaican slaves to Panama and the Atlantic
Coast of Guatemala and Costa Rica. In 1900 it was outlawed
in Trinidad after it had caused some fatalities. There are
scattered trees in Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and
Brazil, quite a number maintained as curiosities in southern
Florida; and some planted around Calcutta, India. The tree
has been tried in the warm, moist climate of Guyana and Malaya
but has never survived. At Lamao in the Philippines it first
bore fruit in 1919.
Akee Climate
The
akee tree is tropical to subtropical; flourishes from sea-level
to an elevation of 3,000ft (900 m) in Jamaica. It does not
bear fruit in Guatemala City; fruits heavily in southern Florida
where young trees have been killed by winter cold but mature
trees have escaped serious injury during brief periods of
26° F (-3.33° C).
Akee Soil
The
tree does very well on oolitic limestone and on sand in southern
Florida and the Bahamas, though it grows faster in more fertile
soils.
Akee Propagation
and Culture
Akee
trees are grown from seeds or by shield-budding, and show
very little variation. In European greenhouses, cuttings of
ripe shoots are rooted in sand and raised in a mixture of
peat and loam. In warm climates, the tree grows fast and requires
little cultural attention.
Akee Season
There
is some flowering and fruiting all year in Jamaica. In Florida,
flowers appear in spring and the fruits in mid summer and
there may be a light blooming period in the fall. In the Bahamas,
there are 2 distinct crops a year, one from February through
April and the second from July to October.
Akee Food
Uses
The
akee must be allowed to open fully or at least partly before
it is detached from the tree. When it has "yawned", the seeds
are discarded and the arils, while still fresh and firm, are
best parboiled in salted water or milk and then lightly fried
in butter. Then they are really delicious. In Jamaica, they
are often cooked with codfish, onions and tomatoes. After
parboiling, they are added to a stew of beef, salt-pork and
scallions, thyme and other seasonings. Sometimes they are
curried and eaten with rice. They are served, not only in
the home, but also in hotel dining rooms and other restaurants.
In Africa, they may be eaten raw or in soup, or after frying
in oil.
Akee Toxicity
The
toxicity of the akee was long misunderstood and believed to
reside in the membranes attaching the arils to the jacket,
or only in the overripe and decomposing arils. There have
been intensive clinical and chemical studies of the akee and
its effects since 1940, and it is now known that the unripe
arils contain hypoglycin, a-amino-B-(2-methylenecyclopropyl)
propionic acid, formerly called hy poglycin A. This toxic
property is largely dispelled by light as the jacket opens.
When fully ripe, the arils still possess 1/12 of the amount
in the unripe. The seeds are always poisonous. They contain
hypoglycin and its y-glutamyl derivative, y-L-glutamyl
a-amino-B-(2-methylene cyclopropyl) propionic
acid, formerly called hypoglycin B. The latter is 1/2 as toxic
as the former.
In
feeding experiments at the University of Miami, Dr. Edward
Larson found that the membrane of open fruits was harmless;
rabbits were readily killed by the unripe arils; rats were
resistant and had to be force fed to be fatally poisoned.
I have found that squirrels will make holes in the unopened
fruits on the tree to consume the unripe arils but they leave
the seeds untouched.
Akee
poisoning in humans is evidenced by acute vomiting, sometimes
repeated, without diarrhea (called "vomiting sickness" in
Jamaica), followed by drowsiness, convulsions, coma and, too
often, death. Because of hypoglycaemic effects, administration
of sugar solutions have been found helpful. Most cases occur
in winter in Jamaica when 30% to 50% of the arils have small,
underdeveloped seeds, often not apparent externally. Ingestion
of such arils, raw or cooked, is hazardous. For more information
on the toxicity of the akee, one may consult Kean, Hypoglycin
(1975), and Morton, Forensic Medicine, Vol. III,
Chap. 71 (1977).
Akee Other
Uses
Fruit:
In West Africa, the green fruits, which produce lather
in water, are used for laundering. Crushed fruits are employed
as fish poison. The seeds, because of their oil content, and
the jacket because of its potash content, are burned and the
ashes used in making soap.
Flowers:
In Cuba an extract of the flowers is appreciated as cologne.
Bark:
On the Gold Coast, a mixture of the pulverized bark and
ground hot peppers is rubbed on the body as a stimulant.
Wood:
The sapwood is white or light greenish-brown. The heartwood
is reddish-brown, hard, coarse-grained, durable, immune to
termites. It is used locally for construction and pilings
and has been recommended for railway sleepers. It is also
fashioned into oars, paddles and casks.
Medicinal
Uses: In Brazil, repeated small doses of an aqueous extract
of the seed has been administered to expel parasites. The
treatment is followed by a saline or oily purative. Cubans
blend the ripe arils with sugar and cinnamon and give the
mixture as a febrifuge and as a treatment for dysentery. On
the Ivory Coast, the bark is mixed with pungent spices in
an ointment applied to relieve pain. The crushed new foliage
is applied on the forehead to relieve severe headache. The
leaves, crushed with salt, are poulticed on ulcers. The leaf
juice is employed as eye drops in ophthalmia and conjunctivitis.
In Colombia, the leaves and bark are considered stomachic.
Various preparations are made for treatment of epilepsy and
yellow fever.
The
tree has a pyramidal or rounded crown; is generally about
33 ft (10 m) high but may reach 115 ft (35 m) in favorable
situations. A gummy latex, white or reddish, exudes from wounds
in the bark. The leaves are alternate and highly variable;
may be ovate-oblong, obovate or elliptic; 4 to 8 in (10-20
cm) long, 1 1/4 to 2 3/8 in (3-6 cm) wide; short-pointed at
the apex, sometimes long-tapering at the base; smooth or with
a few scattered hairs. The flowers, borne singly or in groups
of 2 to 5 in the leaf axils, are cylindrical, 4- to 5-lobed,
white or greenish; 1/6 to 1/3 in (4-8 mm) long. The fruit,
downy when young, is ovoid, elliptical or round; 1 1/2 to
4 in (4-10 cm) long, sometimes having a short nipple at the
apex; with smooth, tough, pale-yellow skin when ripe and fragrant,
white, mucilaginous, translucent, mild-flavored, sweet or
insipid pulp containing 1 to 4 oblong seeds, brown, with a
pale hilum on one side. Until fully ripe, the fruit is permeated
with latex and is very gummy and astringent.
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