Star fruit
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Star fruit ( Averrhoa carambola ) |
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The star fruit ( Averrhoa carambola ), also called carambola , carambola or carambola , is one of two species from the genus of cucumber trees ( Averrhoa ) alongside the cucumber tree . They belong to the wood sorrel family (Oxalidaceae) and come from Southeast Asia , but are cultivated in the tropics and subtropics around the world.
description
Vegetative characteristics
The star fruit is an evergreen , slow-growing tree with a short trunk, which can usually reach heights of up to 5–10 m, in exceptional cases up to 15 m, and can branch out strongly. The bark is smooth and brownish.
The leaves are alternate on the outer, 2 to 3 mm thick, finely hairy branches. The composite, often alternating, imparipinnate leaves are 15 to 25 cm long and stand on 15 to 35 mm long petioles that are finely tomentose and thickened at the base. The leaves consist of about 5 to 13 short-stalked pinnate leaves , these are 5 to 8 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide at the tip, and only 1.5 to 3 × 1 to 2 cm wide at the base of the leaves. They are egg-shaped to oblong, pointed at the tip and blunt to rounded at the base. They are finely tomentose on both sides of the leaf veins . The leaflets are light and movement sensitive, photo and seismonastic.
Inflorescences and flowers
The up to 5–8 cm long inflorescences are in the leaf axils or they appear ramiflora on the branch or twig. They are cymes that stand in panicles with a reddish, slightly hairy spindle or in groups. The reddish peduncle is up to 1 cm long, the glabrous and reddish pedicels between 1 and 4 mm.
The hermaphroditic, radially symmetrical and stalked flowers are up to 8-10 mm long and five-fold with a double flower envelope. The five elongated, almost bare, reddish sepals that are fused at their base are 2.5 to 3.5 mm long and 1 to 2 mm wide. The elongated to inverted-shaped and free petals are purple to lavender or white. They have a length of 6 to 9 mm and are 1.5 to 3 mm wide, on the inside they are short papillose -drüsenhaarig.
Averrhoa carambola is heterostyle and distyle, i.e. H. there are specimens with long pistils and short stamens and those in which it is the other way round. Five long, fertile stamens with 2 to 2.5 mm long stamens surrounded five shorter, sterile stamens ( staminodes ) that any or sterile anther form. The upper pistil is 3 to 4 mm long and cylindrical-elliptical in shape, with 4–5 styluses .
fruit
The star-shaped and mostly pentagonal, ribbed and smooth fruits are about 8 to 17 cm long, greenish to yellow or orange, fleshy berries with a diameter of 5 to 8 cm. They are elongated-ellipsoidal to egg-shaped and are clearly divided lengthways into usually five large, triangular, rounded to angular "ribs". The pulp is yellowish, translucent and slightly sour to sweet. The up to 2–15 flat, orange-brown, elliptical seeds per fruit have a gelatinous aril .
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.
use
If you cut the fruit crosswise into slices, you get decorative stars that are used to garnish desserts , salads and cocktails . The fruits consist of 90% water and contain 0.38% protein , 0.08% fats and 9.38% carbohydrates, a high proportion of vitamins A and C as well as calcium and iron . In the Chinese homeland, the fruit is often compared to the very sour bilimbi , the fruit of the cucumber tree ( Averrhoa bilimbi ). In Chinese medicine, the crushed fruit is considered a good wound healing agent and the juice is said to be fever-reducing and, above all, thirst-quenching.
Star fruit poisoning
In patients with renal insufficiency (chronic kidney failure), symptoms of poisoning with hiccups, vomiting, muscle weakness , numbness of the extremities, paresis and seizures occur relatively frequently after consuming carambola . Patients who are dialyzed immediately recover without any consequences. Patients who are not dialyzed often die. The neurotoxin caramboxin in the carambola, a phenylalanine- like compound, has since been identified. Substantial inhibition of several cytochromes in the liver by carambole juice, etc. a. of the cytochrome P450 , up to 70% of their activity could be detected. This prolongs the effectiveness of a number of drugs and slows down detoxification steps through these cytochromes. Impairment of cardiac function was observed in animal experiments.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c William Burger (Ed.): Flora Costaricensis ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Fieldiana. Botany. NS No. 28. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 1991, p. 5, ISSN 0015-0746 .
- ↑ a b c H. D. Tindall, Victor Galán Saúco: Carambola Cultivation. FAO Plant Production and Protection Papers 108, FAO, 1993, ISBN 92-5-103043-X , pp. 11-14.
- ↑ Averrhoa carambola at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ^ J. Morton: Carambola . "The oxalic acid content is high at 0.5%" in: Julia Frances Morton: Fruits of warm climates. Miami FL 1987, ISBN 0-9610184-1-0 , pp. 125-128.
- ↑ MM Neto et al: Intoxication by star fruit (Averrhoa carambola) in 32 uraemic patients - treatment and outcome. In: Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation . 18 (1), 2003, pp. 120-125. PMID 12480969 .
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Norberto Garcia-Cairasco et al. a: Elucidating the Neurotoxicity of the Star Fruit. In: Angewandte Chemie. 52 (49), 2013, 13067-13070. PMID 24281890 .
- ↑ JW Zhang et al: Inhibition of human liver cytochrome P450 by star fruit juice. In: Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences . 10 (4), 2007, 496-503. PMID 18261370 .
- ↑ CM Vasconcelos et al .: Electrophysiological effects of the aqueous extract of Averrhoa carambola L. leaves on the guinea pig heart. In: Phytomedicine . 13 (7), 2006, 501-508. PMID 16785041 .
Web links
- Averrhoa carambola at Useful Tropical Plants.