Lanzones: Now in season again
Lance is an American from Hawaii who is married to a Filipina. The couple is blessed with three two daughters and one son. When his wife was pregnant with their second child, she craved lanzones but Lance didn’t know what it was so he bought her a lychee. She grumbled that it was not the kind of fruit she wanted.
Last year, the family finally visited the Philippines. While in the country, Lance saw a vendor selling what he thought was grapes. He bought some and tasted it. It was only later that he knew it was lanzones. His comment: “Very good. Now, I can say why my wife could tell the difference.”
In the Philippines, the harvest of lanzones is celebrated every year in October with a weekend of street dancing, parade and pageants in the town of Mambajao, Camiguin. Like most festivals in the country, the celebration includes an exhibit of agri-cottage industry products, barangay beautification, indigenous sports, tableau of local culture, grand parade of the lanzones which is the golden and extra sweet fruit found in the entire province of Camiguin.
Wikipedia reports that the town of Paete in Laguna also holds the annual Paet-Taka-Lanzones Festival every third week of September. The barangay of Concepcion of Talisay City in Negros Occidental – where the cultivar Concepcion originates from – also celebrates the fruit in the Maradula Festival.
Scientifically, lanzones is known as Lansium domesticum. It is grown throughout the entire Southeast Asia, ranging from Malaysia (where it is known as langsat) to Vietnam (lon bon and bon bon). It is also grown in India and Thailand called langsad or longkong). Outside the region, it has also been successfully transplanted and introduced to Hawaii and Surinam.
The Philippines is one of the largest producers of lanzones, along with Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. The production is mostly for internal consumption, although some are exported to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Kuwait.
In the Philippines, where it is locally referred to as the lanzones (although it is called buahan or buwabuwa among the Bisaya people) the plant is grown mostly on the northern island of Luzon due to the species’ narrow range of conditions favorable to its survival. It is also found in abundance in Northern Mindanao particularly in places as Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Camiguin, Cotabato, and Davao del Sur. However, over 75% of all lanzones are grown in Sulu province.
The fruits of lanzones are ovoid, roundish orbs around five centimeters in diameter, usually found in clusters of two to thirty fruits. Each round fruit is covered by yellowish, thick, leathery skin.
Underneath the skin, the fruit is divided into five or six slices of translucent, juicy flesh. The flesh is slightly acidic in taste, although ripe fruits are sweeter. Green seeds are present in around half of the segments, usually taking up a small portion of the segment although some seeds take up the entire segment’s volume. In contrast with the sweet-sour flavor of the fruit’s flesh, the seeds are extremely bitter. The sweet juicy flesh contains sucrose, saccharose, fructose and glucose.
The fruit’s flavor and sweetness is so unique that it attracts bats. In Indonesia, growers wrap pungent bundles of shrimp paste and hang them on the trees to distract or repel the bats.
In Paete, Laguna, people hang kerosene lamps on the trees to do the same task. The resulting view of hundreds of hanging kerosene lamps on a hillside is said to be spectacular.
The fruit of lanzones is eaten fresh. However, there is a sap to the fruit’s skin that is extremely sticky and fairly gross on the tongue – kind of like spreading a faster drying glue on your tongue.
To be free from that sap, don’t break the skin of the fruit using your finger but just hold it and press between your thumbs and fingers snugly to break it open. Then, enjoy eating the fruit.
Lanzones can be grown anywhere in the country. For backyard planting, dig a hole wide and deep enough to accommodate the plant with a ball of soil. For medium to large scale planting, prepare the land thoroughly. For the second growth forest, trees are cut down and burn the trees as they dry. Leave the stumps to decay and plant without plowing.
In open land and under coconut, do the deep plowing to loosen the soil followed by harrowing. As soon as the land is ready, make a stake a distance of 5-7 meters. Under the coconut, set the stakes at the center of the squares formed by the coconut trees. Since coconut trees are usually spaced 8 meters apart, the resulting distance for lanzones is also 8 meters.
According to the Kabacan-based Southern Mindanao Integrated Agricultural Research Center (SMIARC), there are four-known varieties of lanzones grown in the country: Duku, Paete, Jolo, and Longkong.
Duku, found in limited numbers in Laguna and Oriental Mindoro, has fruits that are round and are borne from 4-12 fruits per cluster. It is sweet with a delicate flavor. The fruits of Paete (which is grown mostly in Paete, Laguna and its surrounding towns) are elongated and the smallest among the four varieties. Jolo’s fruits are round and larger than Paete. Purposely grown as rootstock, it is found mainly in southeastern and southwestern Mindanao.
Longkong is the latest lanzones introduced into the Philippines as it is originally grown in southern Thailand. The fruits are sweeter, tastier, and less seedless than the common Paete. The skin or peel has no latex.
Lanzones generally bear fruit once a year. In Southern Tagalog, lanzones are available from August to October and in Mindanao, peak season occurs from July to November. Secondary fruits may occur during January to April.
Lanzones can be harvested in five to six months from flower emergence. Maturity index is when the color of the pericarp changes from green to yellow, according to the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.
MBRLC recommends using a sharp knife or shear in clipping-off the bunches. Bruising the fruits must be avoided so handling them properly is recommended. The harvested fruits are packed in crates or kaing which are lined with old newspaper or thin foam on the inside to serve as cushion.
Studies show the lanzones seed and rind are rich in tannin and contain chemical substances that are medicinally and industrially useful. The fresh peeling yielded a volatile oil, a resin, and some reducing acids. The resin is believed to be nontoxic and protective to the stomach against alcohol.
There are some reports that the decoction of bark and leaves can be used for dysentery. The powdered bark can also be used to treat scorpion stings. The resin of the bark, on the other hand, can be utilized for swellings; in fact, it is considered as an antispasmodic.
The tincture prepared from the dried rind may be used for diarrhea. The dried fruit skins, when burned, emit an aromatic smell and it can be used as repellent to drive away mosquitoes. It also makes a pleasant inhalant, which can be placed in rooms of sick people.
The website, onlyfoods.net, also shares the following medicinal properties of lanzones. Pounded seeds are added to water to be drunk as a medication for ulcer and deworming. The leaves and barks have been traditionally used to treat malaria and dysentery. The powdered bark is used as a poultice to treat scorpion stings. Juice of the leaves is used as eye drops to relieve inflammation.
The website also cites some precautions. “Despite the fruit containing a lot of vitamins and essential minerals, it is still safe to consult a doctor before including it as a part of your diet when you are pregnant,” it advises. “Though they do not have any known side effects, over-consumption of lanzones might affect your health adversely as it is one of the fruits known to cause gas and bloating.”
Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
