Akee

Akee
	Akee fruit
Systematics
	Eurosiden II
Order :	Sapindales (Sapindales)
Family :	Soap tree family (Sapindaceae)
Subfamily :	Sapindoideae
Genre :	Blighia
Type :	Akee
Scientific name
	Blighia sapida
	KDKoenig

The Akee ( Blighia sapida ) is a species of plant that belongs to the soap tree family (Sapindaceae). Originally from tropical West Africa , it is now the national fruit of Jamaica and is grown in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. Other names of the plant are Ackee , Aki or Akiplaume . It belongs to the same subfamily Sapindoideae as litchi ( Litchi chinensis ) and the longan ( Dimocarpus longan ).

description

Branch with pinnate leaves and fruits

inflorescence

Vegetative characteristics

The Akee grows as an evergreen tree and reaches heights of up to about 30 meters. The trunk diameter can be up to 120 centimeters. The bark is light gray and smooth. There may sometimes be smaller buttress roots. It has a short trunk and a dense treetop .

The alternate, short-stalked and 15 to 20 cm long, symmetrical leaves are pinnate in pairs and have three to five pairs of leaflets . The leaf stalks are slightly winged. The short-stalked, leathery pinnate leaves are obovate to elliptical with a length of up to 15 cm and a width of up to 8 cm. The tip is rounded to pointed, the edges are whole and sometimes wavy. The underside of the leaf is sparsely hairy. Stipules are missing. A stunted leaflet is sometimes present at the outer end of the rachis .

Generative characteristics

The ackee is wrong polygam- dioecious , that is functionally unisexual flowers are on different copies. The short-stalked, five-fold flowers are in an axillary, slender, racemose , up to 20 cm long inflorescence . The greenish-white, -yellow and fragrant flowers are hermaphroditic, but functionally unisexual. The cup is small and hairy. The petals are hairy. There are up to 6–10 long stamens with hairy stamens. The most insulated draft tube with three-sided ovary is upper constant and hairy, with short pencil with capitate, split scar . The male flowers have a stunted ovary, the female reduced stamens. There is a multi-lobed disc .

The leathery, smooth, obovate to pear-shaped, mostly three-sided and up to 10 cm large, fissured capsule fruit turns light red to yellow-orange when ripe. It opens into three large crevices, then glossy black, smooth seeds appear, which sit on a soft, spongy, whitish aril (peg). The roundish, normally 3 to (rarely 5) seeds are up to 2.5 cm in size, the aril at the base is up to 4 cm long.

The pink raphe (membrane) where the aril is attached is very poisonous and must be carefully and always completely removed. You also have to harvest at the right time, unripe, still closed fruits and too few, barely open or overripe, heavily wrinkled, or the arilli are unsuitable for consumption or poisonous.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 32.

history

The generic name Blighia was chosen in honor of William Bligh , Captain of the HMS Bounty . He brought the first specimens from Jamaica to Kew Gardens in 1793 , introducing them to European science. Blighia sapida originally comes from West Africa and was probably brought to Jamaica by slave transport.

Taxonomy

The first description was made by Karl Dietrich Eberhard Koenig in Ann. Bot. (King & Sims) 2: 571, t. 16-17. 1806. Synonyms are Akea solitaria Stokes , Akeesia africana Tussac , Cupania akeesia Cambess. ex Spach , Cupania sapida (KDKoenig) Oken , Cupania edulis Schumach. & Thonn. and Bonannia nitida Raf.

food

Structural formula of hypoglycine

Size comparison

The Akee is not edible whole. Only the fleshy seed coats (the arilli) with a nutty taste are edible. The rest of the fruit and the seeds are poisonous. The toxicity comes from the non-proteinogenic amino acid hypoglycine (hypoglycine A). The arilli of unripe, overripe and even ripe fruits can lead to vomiting ( vomiting ) and low blood sugar ( hypoglycaemia ). According to media reports, eating unripe or overripe arilli can also lead to death.

Akee and "saltfish" (salted and dried cod ) is a popular dish in Jamaican cuisine . “Saltfish”, sautéed with Akee, pork fat, onions, tomatoes, vegetables and several kinds of pepper, is served garnished with crispy bacon and fresh tomatoes.

The arillus is very high in calories because it consists of almost 15–19% fat. B. usually more calories than avocado , the arillus is usually eaten cooked or roasted.

Nutritional values

The oil from the seed coats is light yellow, it can be stored for a long time, the oil from the fruit is reddish. Akee oil is an important part of the diet of many Jamaicans.

Raw Akee arilli have a physiological calorific value of around 627-1046 kJ / 100 g (= 150-250 kcal / 100 g) depending on the composition.

literature

TK Lim: Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants. Volume 6: Fruits , Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-94-007-5627-4 , pp. 4–12.

Web links

Commons : Blighia sapida - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Blighia sapida from PROTA, accessed October 13, 2018.
Akee on hort.purdue.edu (English).
Blighia sapida at Useful Tropical Plants, accessed October 13, 2018.
Akee In: Spore. 92, April 2001, p. 7 (PDF, English).

Individual evidence

↑ Ben-Erik van Wyk: Food plants of the world. An illustrated guide . Timber Press, Portland, OR 2005, ISBN 0-88192-743-0 , pp. 91 .
^ ^A ^b ^c K. Kubitzki: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. X, Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-14397-7 , p. 386.
^ ^A ^b ^c S. A. Mitchell, SA Webster, MH Ahmad: Ackee (Bighia sapida) - Jamaica's top fruit. In: Jamaica journal. 31 (1-2), 2008, pp. 84–89, online (PDF), at researchgate.net, accessed on October 13, 2018.
↑ James A. Duke: Handbook of Medicinal Herbs: Herbal Reference Library. CRC Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-351-08957-9 .
↑ Blighia sapida at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
^ Slavery and the natural world. Chapter 5: Diet and nutrition (PDF; 528 kB), at Natural History Museum, pp. 7–8.
↑ online at babel.hathitrust.org, accessed October 13, 2018.
↑ HSA Sherratt: Hypoglycine, the famous toxin of the unripe Jamaican ackee fruit . In: Trends in pharmacological sciences . Vol. 2, 1986, ISSN 0165-6147 , pp. 186-191 , doi : 10.1016 / 0165-6147 (86) 90310-X .
↑ International in letter . The Guardian. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
↑ Akee in Jamaica (PDF; 1.4 MB), from Department of Sociology and Anthropology - College of Charleston, accessed October 13, 2018.
↑ Calculation from information in PROTA.

[wyk-1] Ben-Erik van Wyk: Food plants of the world. An illustrated guide . Timber Press, Portland, OR 2005, ISBN 0-88192-743-0 , pp. 91 .

[Kubi-2] A ^b ^c K. Kubitzki: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. X, Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-14397-7 , p. 386.

[Mitch-3] A ^b ^c S. A. Mitchell, SA Webster, MH Ahmad: Ackee (Bighia sapida) - Jamaica's top fruit. In: Jamaica journal. 31 (1-2), 2008, pp. 84–89, online (PDF), at researchgate.net, accessed on October 13, 2018.

[4] James A. Duke: Handbook of Medicinal Herbs: Herbal Reference Library. CRC Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-351-08957-9 .

[IPCN-5] Blighia sapida at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

[NHM-6] Slavery and the natural world. Chapter 5: Diet and nutrition (PDF; 528 kB), at Natural History Museum, pp. 7–8.

[7] t babel.hathitrust.org, accessed October 13, 2018.

[sherratt-8] HSA Sherratt: Hypoglycine, the famous toxin of the unripe Jamaican ackee fruit . In: Trends in pharmacological sciences . Vol. 2, 1986, ISSN 0165-6147 , pp. 186-191 , doi : 10.1016 / 0165-6147 (86) 90310-X .

[9] International in letter . The Guardian. Retrieved August 27, 2013.

[10] Akee in Jamaica (PDF; 1.4 MB), from Department of Sociology and Anthropology - College of Charleston, accessed October 13, 2018.

[11] Calculation from information in PROTA.