Taperebá
Taperabá tree can reach up to 25 meters in height, has a thin-skinned and yellow-orange with tasty, acidic pulp.
Scientific name: Spondias mombin L.
Popular names: cajá, cajá-mirim, cajá-pequeno, cajarana, cajazinho, acaíba, cajá, taperebá, taperibá-miúdo.
Botanical family: Anacardiaceae.
Cajazeira is a deciduous plant, large size that exceeds 20 meters in height, with a trunk coated with thick, rough bark that branches and twigs, when in bloom and fruiting the large canopy becomes showy and impressive. There are leaves up to 30 centimeters long. The flowers are whitish, and usually occurs self-pollination. The fruit is a drupe 3 to 6 cm long, ovoid or oblong, slightly flattened at the base, with color ranging from yellow to orange when ripe, thin skin and yellow to orange colored pulp, which makes up the fruit thin thickness, which is juicy and has a sweet to sour flavor, and can vary according to the plant. The pulp is also very aromatic and sweet-sour flavored, with good sugar levels, vitamins A and C, and carotenoids. The fruit weight can vary greatly. Where in Bahia, fruits have been found weighing from 4.8 to 37.4 g.
Consumed in natura, the fruits can be found in street markets. The wood is light and easy to work, very useful for carpentry and small boats. The bark of the taperabá tree is aromatic, astringent, and emetic, antidiarrheal, antidysenteric, and anti-hemorrhoidal, the latter property also attributed to the root. The leaves have shown presence of tannins in phytochemical studies, saponins, resins, sterols and triterpenes, flavonoids, and alkaloids. In traditional medicine, the leaves and the bark of cajazeira tree stem are used for infectious disorders, especially diarrhea treatment. The flowers are melliferous. The industrial yield of pulp is about 40% and it’s estimated that only 30% of crop is used due to harvest and transport losses because of fruit perishability.
Degraded areas can be recovered using cajazeira trees because attract birds. For landscapes, is considering its growth in height.
