
Belimbing buluh (Averrhoa bilimbi)


Traditional uses
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used as an antibacterial, antiscorbutic, astringent, postpartum protective medicine, in the treatment of fever, inflammation of the rectum, and diabetes
Leaves: Infusions and decoctions
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used in the treatment of itches, boils, skin eruptions, bites of poisonous creatures, rheumatism, cough, cold, mumps, and syphilis
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treat pimples
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used in the treatment of scurvy, bilious colic, obesity, and diabetes
Fruits: make juice
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useful for bleaching stains from the hands and rust from white cloth, and also tarnish from brass
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to treat high blood pressure (hypertension)
Leaves: decoction
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to treat cough
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can cure mumps (beguk)
Bark: cooked with onion like porridge
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to treat heel pain
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can cure stomach ache
Young leaves: eat raw
Fruit
Fruit
Preparation/ part of plants used
Leaves: make paste
Fruits: grated + a little salt applied to the face
Leaves, flower, fruit: boiled
Young leaves: pounded with black pepper (Piper nigrum)
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used in cooking to add sour taste
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treat fever
Common names
-bilimbi, cucumber tree, tree sorrel, pickle tree (English)
-huang gua shu (Chinese)
-vilimbipuli, irumpanpuli, and bilimbi (India)
-belimbing buluh and blimbing asam (Malaysia).
-belongs to the Oxalidaceae family
-originated in the Southeast Asia and is claimed as a native of the West Malaysia and the Indonesian Moluccas.
-a small tree which grows up to 15 m high with sparsely arranged branches.
-has compound leaves with twenty–forty leaflets each and 5–10 cm long, leaves are hairy with pinnate shapes and form clusters at the end of branches.
-flowers are heterotristylous with petal 10–30 m long, yellowish green to reddish purple.
-The fruits are produced on the bare stem and trunk. The fruits are greenish in color with a firm and juicy flesh which becomes soft on ripening and extremely acidic
Descriptions
Chemical constituents
Fruits: hexadecanoic acid [palmitic acid], 2-furaldehyde and (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid, butyl nicotinate and hexyl nicotinate, nonanal (Z)-3-hexenol, octane, tricosane, (E)-2-decenal, nonanoic acid, (Z)-9-pentacosene, 2-furfural and (Z)-9-tricosene, 2,4-dihydroxy-6-((4-methylpentyloxy) methyl) benzaldehyde, oxalic acid and it also rich in Vitamin C
Leaves: alkaloid, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, glycosides, triterpenes, phenols, and carbohydrates, squalene, 3-(6,10,14-trimethylpentadecan-2-yl) furan-2 (5H)-one, 2,3-bis (2,6,10-trimethylundeca-1,5,9-trienyl) oxirane, phytol, 3,4-Dihydroxyhexanedioic acid, malonic acid, and 4,5-Dihydroxy-2-methylenehydroxybenzaldehyde using methanol extract