Pomelo



Singapore Infopedia

Background

The pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis) is the largest citrus fruit from the Rutaceae family.1 It is also known as shaddock, so-named after a Captain Shaddock who was said to have brought seeds of the fruit from the Malay Archipelago to the West Indies on an East India Company ship in the 17th century.2 The word “pomelo” may have come from a word of unknown origin “pampelmoose”, or from the Dutch pompelmoes, meaning grapefruit.3 In Southeast Asia, it is commonly known as limau besar, limau betawi, or limau serdadu in Malay; jeruk bali in Bahasa Indonesia; sam-o in Thai; lukban in Tagalog; and bu’o’i in Vietnamese.4 The popular fruit is used in many Chinese festive celebrations throughout Southeast Asia.5

Origins and distribution
The pomelo is likely to have originated from the Malesian region (a bio-geographical are stretching from Malaysia through Indonesia to Papua New Guinea).6 Different species of the pomelo, either bred through selection and propagation or found as natural hybrids, have been cultivated in Southeast Asia.  In 1884, a variety of pomelo, limau bali, was imported into Malaya from Indonesia by Sir Hugh Low and cultivated in Penang and Perak. A peculiar variety found in the Dutch East Indies called the limau wangkang in Malay, comprises a small fruit enclosed within a larger fruit.7


In Southeast Asia, the pomelo is grown as a crop in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.8

Description
The pomelo tree has low spreading branches that grow to around five to 15 m in height.9 The thorny tree has many branches and fruits all year round. Its leaves grow to about 15 cm wide. Oil glands on the dark green leaves – seen as small dots – give them a shiny appearance. The flowers are white, fragrant and grow solitarily to about 2.5 cm wide.10 The pomelo fruit is the largest of all citrus fruits, measuring 10 to 30 cm in diameter.11 Its rough skin can range from a light green to yellow and is also dotted with oil glands.12 The fruit is round to pear-shaped, with white thick spongy pith that encloses the edible portion of the fruit.13 Each fruit comprises nine to 14 segments that are covered with paper-thin skin.14 The flesh of the fruit can vary in sweetness, juiciness as well as colour, ranging from white, light yellow and pink hues.15 The fruit is sweet and tart, but some can have a bitter aftertaste.16 Pomelos produced in Thailand are especially favoured for their pink flesh and juicy tart sweetness.17 The fruits of some pomelo species are full of seeds, whereas others are almost seedless.18

Usage and potential
Food

The fruit of the pomelo is rich in vitamin C and potassium, besides being low in calories. The pomelo fruit can be eaten on its own or in a salad. Its rind can be candied or used in jams.19 The Malays boil the rind in a syrup.20 The Chinese also use the fruit as a topping for sweet desserts (tong sui).21 Pomelo pulp is often added as one of the ingredients in the festive platter, yu sheng, during Chinese New Year.22

Medicine
The Chinese make various medicines from the seeds, flowers, mature peel, and slices of young pomelo fruit, usually by drying them first before combining with other ingredients. It is used to treat cough, indigestion and motion sickness.23 The Malays eat the fruit to treat abdominal pains, edema and phlegm.24 They also boil pomelo leaves to make a lotion, which is applied on swellings and ulcers.25

Other uses
Pomelo leaves are used for aromatic baths.26 Essential oil can be extracted from the leaves, peel or seeds of some pomelo species. Oil from the seeds of an inferior pomelo species was used to light opium pipes in Indochina. Perfumes are extracted from the flowers using enfleurage. The moderately heavy and hard timber from pomelo trees can be used to make, among other things, tool handles.27

Variant names
28
Common name: pomelo
Scientific name: Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis
Botanical family: Rutaceae
Other common names: shaddock, Batavia lemon
Bahasa Indonesia: limau besar, jeruk bali, jeruk adas, jeruk machan, limau kibau, limau balak, limau betawi29

Burmese: shouk-ton-oh, kywegaw
Cambodian: krôoch thlông
Lao: kiéngz s’aangz, ph’uk, sômz ‘ôô
Malay: limau bali, limau besar, jambua, limau betawi
Thai: som-o, ma-o
Vietnamese: bu’o’i



Author

Naidu Ratnala Thulaja



References
1. Anne Nathan and Wong Yit Chee, A Guide to Fruits and Seeds (Singapore: Singapore Science Centre, 1987), 62 (Call no. RSING 634.6 BLA); Michael Jensen, Trees and Fruits of Southeast Asia: An Illustrated Field Guide (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2001), 101. (Call no. RSING 582.160959 JEN)
2. Desmond Tate, Tropical Fruit (Singapore: Archipelago Press, 2007), 48 (Call no. RSING 634.6 TAT); I. A. Burkill, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Agriculture Malaysia, 2002), 577 (Call no. RSING 634.9095951 BUR); Jacqueline M. Piper, Fruits of South-east Asia: Facts and Folklore (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989), 41. (Call no. RSING 634.60959 PIP)
3. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 577; Tate, Tropical Fruit, 48.
4. Wendy Hutton, Tropical Fruits of Malaysia & Singapore (Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, 2000), 47 (Call no. RSING 634.6 HUT); Jensen, Trees and Fruits of Southeast Asia, 101; Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 577.
5. Piper, Fruits of South-east Asia, 42.
6. Hutton, Tropical Fruits of Malaysia & Singapore, 42.
7. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 577–78.
8. Othman Yaacob and Suranant Subhadrabandhu, The Production of Economic Fruits in South-East Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 156–64 (Call no. RSING 634.0959 OTH); “Pomelo King,” Straits Times, 31 December 1996, 12. (From NewspaperSG)
9. Jensen, Trees and Fruits of Southeast Asia, 101; Nathan and Wong, Guide to Fruits and Seeds, 62; Yaacob and Subhadrabandhu, Production of Economic Fruits in South-East Asia, 156.
10. Nathan and Wong, Guide to Fruits and Seeds, 62.
11. Jensen, Trees and Fruits of Southeast Asia, 101.
12. Nathan and Wong, Guide to Fruits and Seeds, 62.
13. Piper, Fruits of South-east Asia, 41.
14. Nathan and Wong, Guide to Fruits and Seeds, 62.
15. Hutton, Tropical Fruits of Malaysia & Singapore, 47.
16. Nathan and Wong, Guide to Fruits and Seeds, 62; Yaacob and Subhadrabandhu, Production of Economic Fruits in South-East Asia, 158.
17. Piper, Fruits of South-east Asia, 41; Hutton, Tropical Fruits of Malaysia & Singapore, 47.
18. Hutton, Tropical Fruits of Malaysia & Singapore, 47.
19. Robert Danhi, Southeast Asian Flavors: Adventures in Cooking the Foods of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore (Calif.: Mortar & Press, 2008), 240, 241. (Call no. RSING 641.5959 DAN); Tate, Tropical Fruit, 48, 49.
20. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 578.
21. Rolf Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants of the World: An Illustrated Guide (NY: Comstock Publishing Associates, 2016), 71 (Call no. RSING 634.6 BLA); Pauline D. Loh, “Golden Ambrosia,” Today, 16 September 2003, 29. (From NewspaperSG)
22. Amy Van, “Fortune Salad,” Today, 8 September 2005, 52. (From NewspaperSG)
23. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 578; Tate, Tropical Fruit, 48.
24. Muhamad bin Zakaria and Mustafa Ali Mohd, Traditional Malay Medicinal Plants (Kuala Lumpur: Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia, 2010), 146. (Call no. RSING 581.634 MUH)
25. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 578.
26. Piper, Fruits of South-east Asia, 42; Eduardo Quisumbing, Medicinal Plants of the Philippines (Quezon City: Katha Pub, 1978), 453. (Call no. RSING 581.609599 QUI)
27. Burkill, Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 578.
28. Burkill,Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 577; Jensen, Trees and Fruits of Southeast Asia, 101.
29. Burkill,Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 577.



The information in this article is valid as at 2017 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.


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