ABSTRACT

This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Jackfruit. Few, if any, tropical fruits can excel the jackfruit in size and usefulness. Cultivated for its multiple fruit, the pulp may be cooked or fried before ripening, or eaten raw when ripe. Reported to be astringent, demulcent, laxative, refrigerant, and tonic, jackfruit is a folk remedy for alcoholism, carbuncles, caries, leprosy, puerperium, smallpox, sores, sterility, stomach problems, toothache, and tumors. Native to the Indian Archipelago, jackfruit is now widely cultivated throughout the Old and New World tropics, being known in India, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Java, and in South America from the Guianas as far south as Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, West Indies, and southern Florida. Trees start bearing fruit when 4 to 14 years old; once established, they continue to bear for several decades.