Manilkara zapota

Manilkara zapota, also called sapodilla, sapote, chicozapote, chicle, naseberry, nispero, or soapapple, is an evergreen tree that originally comes from southern Mexico and Central America. In the wild, it grows as a subdominant plant in the Petenes mangroves of coastal Yucatán. The tree was brought to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period and is now widely farmed in Mexico, tropical Asia (including India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh), and the Caribbean.

Most of its common names—like sapodilla, chiku, and chicozapote—come from Spanish, meaning "little sapote." Other English names include bully tree, soapapple tree, sawo, marmalade plum, and dilly tree. The scientific name's second part, zapota, traces back through Spanish to the Nahuatl word for similar-looking fruits.

Description

A sapodilla tree can live up to a hundred years. In the wild, it may reach over 30 meters tall with a trunk up to 1.5 meters across, but cultivated trees are usually 9 to 15 meters tall with trunks no thicker than 50 centimeters. The tree is wind-resistant, and its bark contains a white, gummy latex called chicle. The leaves are elliptic to oval, 6 to 15 centimeters long, with smooth edges and 1- to 3-centimeter stalks; they are medium green and glossy, with brown, slightly fuzzy midribs, and grow in an alternating pattern.

Sapodilla trees need warm, tropical conditions and have low tolerance for drought and heat when young; they die easily if temperatures drop below freezing. From seed, it takes five to eight years to bear fruit. The trees produce fruit twice a year, though flowering can happen year-round. The white flowers are small and bell-shaped, with a six-lobed corolla.

Fruit

The fruit is a large berry, 4 to 8 centimeters across. When unripe, it has firm skin and releases white latex (chicle) from the stem if picked. A fully ripe fruit has saggy skin and does not release latex. Inside, the flesh ranges from pale yellow to earthy brown, with a grainy texture like a ripe pear.

Each fruit holds one to six hard, glossy black seeds that look like beans, with a hook at one end that could catch in the throat if swallowed. Ripe sapodilla tastes exceptionally sweet and malty. Unripe fruit is hard and contains high levels of saponin, which dries out the mouth like tannin.

Biological studies

Studies on rats have found that compounds from the leaves have anti-diabetic, antioxidant, and cholesterol-lowering effects. Acetone extracts from the seeds have shown antibacterial activity in lab tests against strains of Pseudomonas oleovorans and Vibrio cholerae.

Uses

The fruit is edible and popular in the tropical Americas. The chicle from the bark is used to make chewing gum.