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-bijanto-

Miracle Fruit is NOT Alone

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Marasi (Curculigo latifolia)

The fruits of Marasi (Curculigo latifolia) are edible. The fruits of Curculigo latifolia taste like sweetened cucumber and increase the appetite. Though the fruits are not extremely sweet themselves, they produce a very sweet aftertaste when a drink is taken after eating the fruit. This also occurs when a sour substance is taken after the fruits, so native people eat the fruits to give a sweet taste to sour foods.

Vernacular names

Indonesia: marasi (Sundanese of West Java), keliangau (Bangka), doyo, lemba (Borneo). Malaysia: lumbah, lembah, lumbah rimba. Thailand: chaa laan, ma phraao nok khum (northern), phraa nok (peninsular). Vietnam: s[aa]m cau l[as] r[ooj]ng.

Origin and geographic distribution

Curculigo comprises about 20 species distributed in the tropics, but most species are also cultivated worldwide as ornamentals. In Malesia 5 species are indigenous. Curculigo capitulata occurs from South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal) through South-East Asia to Taiwan, Australia and the Pacific Islands (Solomon Islands, Hawaii). In Malesia it occurs in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, the Moluccas), the Philippines (Luzon, Negros, Biliran, Mindanao), New Guinea and Manus Island. Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) occurs in India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Malaysia (Perak, Pahang, Sarawak, Sabah), Indonesia (Sumatra, Bangka, Lingga, Java, Kalimantan) and the Philippines (Palawan, Balabac, Samar).

Properties

The taste-modifying properties of the fruits of Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) are due to the presence of the protein curculin. Curculin is a dimer of two identical polypeptides of 114 amino acid residues. It has a sweet taste which disappears rapidly. When taken after curculin, water tastes sweet, and sour substances likewise seem to taste sweet. For instance, a lemon eaten after taking curculin elicits a sweet taste lasting for about 10 minutes. Curculin starts to be synthesized in the fruit a week after pollination and its content increases rapidly (from 0.16 to 1.8%) between 3 and 4 weeks after pollination, shortly before the fruit ripens.

Ecology

Curculigo spp. are shade-loving plants, thriving under partly shaded or sunless conditions, with abundant water supply. In experiments in the open field, Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) grew only very slowly and the leaves remained small. Curculigo prefers fertile, well-drained soils, rich in organic matter. In Java Curculigo capitulata occurs in primary and secondary forest up to 2000 m altitude and Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) in rain forest up to 1100 m altitude.

Propagation and planting

Curculigo can be propagated by division, suckers or freshly sown ripe seed. Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) produces numerous suckers, which can be removed and easily grown into new plants. The Benuaq of Borneo dig up the rhizomes, divide them and wrap the rhizome pieces with some earth in banana leaves held together with rattan. After sprouting, the plants are planted out near the house. In vitro clonal propagation of Curculigo latifolia is possible, with the best results being obtained with rhizome cultures. For this, a half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium was used, supplemented with sucrose (30 g/l), thiamine (0.4 g/l), coconut water (150 ml/l), kinetin (5 mg/l) and indole-acetic acid (2.5 mg/l). Survival of the potted-up plants was about 90%.

Husbandry

Curculigo is easy to cultivate, but requires ample water supply and very good drainage. It responds well to mulching.

Uses

In Peninsular Malaysia infusions of the leaves, stem-tips and roots of Marasi are all used internally against fever. Decoctions of the flowers and roots are taken as a stomachic and diuretic, whereas rhizome decoctions serve to treat menorrhagia and are applied as a lotion against ophthalmia. The rhizomes are also used against eye diseases in north-eastern India. In Borneo the leaves of Marasi play a role in magical healing ceremonies. Curculigo latifolia, Curculigo capitulata and other Curculigo spp. are also grown as ornamental plants, e.g. in Indonesia, India, Africa, Europe and the United States.

In Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia the leaf fibres of Marasi are made into fishing nets. In Borneo, they are also used to make ropes, twines, sarongs, rice bags and garments. The cloth made from the fibre is known as 'lemba' cloth. The leaves of Curculigo latifolia are rolled into strings. In Indonesia and Malaysia they also serve to wrap fruits, vegetables and other goods for transport. The uses of the leaves of Curculigo capitulata in Indonesia are similar to those of Curculigo latifolia (Marasi). The hill people of Camarines in Luzon (the Philippines) make false hair from the leaf fibres of Curculigo capitulata. In Ifugao (Luzon) children use Curculigo capitulata for warp in toy looms. The Lahu of northern Thailand use the leaves of Curculigo capitulata like banana leaves for wrapping.

- The above passages is taken from:

Brink, M., 2003. Curculigo Gaertn. In: Brink, M and Escobin, R.P. (Editors). Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 17: Fibre plants. Backhuys Publisher, Leiden, The Netherlands. pp. 118-120

PS: Of all the member of Curculigo spp, so far only Curculigo latifolia (Marasi) which is known to have the taste-modifying properties. I think apothecary and darcy would be interested in this plant. At this moment I haven't got any seed or plant yet, but I have the Synsepalum dulcificum and this plant is a must-have for me, besides overseas species such as Quararibea funebris, Piper methysticum, and Ilex paraguariensis (those three are on my top want list).

Edited by -bijanto-

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sweet :) wonder if its of any commercial value as a sweetner or wheather like the miracle fruit the compound responsible is degraded quickly after picking?

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bijanto

we really must catch up one day

you show me java , i show you tropical australia

:D

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Rev, so you have moved to tropical Australia? Queensland is one of the places I wish to visit besides Oaxaca in Mexico. I am most interested to see what subtropical fruiting plants might have grown there, and how tropical plants may adapt to the subtropical climate. Actually some highland areas in Java have temperature similarity to subtropical climate in Australia or the US.

Teo, I don't have a data on how well curculin respond to storage and its progress toward commercialization, but this is an interesting subject to discuss.

I don't think curculin has reached a commercial step so far, but it's not impossible. Take for example thaumatin, a sweet tasting protein isolated from West African plant fruit Thaumatococcus danielli. It was first isolated in 1972 and since then it has been commercialized and widely used in many consumer products in UK, Japan etc. Is the UK's brand name "Talin" popular in Australia?

One thing worth consideration is the thermostability, i.e. how high temperature it can remain unchanged, for how long and at what pH etc and of cource the palatability....

Other potential sweet-tasting proteins known so far are:

- monellin (from W. African plant Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii)

- mabinlin (from Chinese plant Capparis masakai)

- pentadin and brazzein (from W. African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana)

In addition, miraculin is not a sweet tasting protein but rather a taste modifer, while curculin is unique compared to other natural sweet tasting proteins in that it not only elicits a sweet taste itself but also modifies water and sour substance into a sweet taste.

Interestingly, all of those proteins have been isolated from fruits of tropical plants where indigenous people have been using them to sweeten their foods, yet it has only been in the last 36 years efforts have been made to make the proteins commercially available. Curculin, for example, was isolated in 1990 by Japanese researchers.

I have read that a master chefs' secret to making fruit salad taste sweeter without adding any sugar is to sprinkle the fruit salad with an old fashion liquor called "Cynar" (brand name). Cynar is an artichoke based bitter. Its distinctive flavour is enriched from an infusion of 13 herbs and plants, a natural drink rich with perfumes.

Just imagine how much possibility we can think of making food taste better at less calory with these wonderful plants - Tropical Australia and Indonesia have the opportunity to produce their own natural low calory sweetener and flavour-enhancer products based on those sweet-tasting proteins.

Furthermore, the production of these proteins are no longer limited to extraction from their natural source, but they can be produced through recombinant DNA technology, i.e producing the same genes inside transgenic plants such as tomatoes etc. Curculin is also being expressed in transgenic plants and E. coli, as part of a cooperation between a japanese Company and a Japanese Research Facility, but few details of this programme have bcome public.

I've been wondering how many Japs have been exploring Indonesian forests quietly and registered some product patents while those corrupt nepotist bastards are busy satisfying themselves.

Edited by -bijanto-

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Rev, so you have moved to tropical Australia?

yes and no

i have a 'foot in the door'

and intend taking most of any holiday time i get there.

i know its where ill end up

ill live ther and take holidays in Tassie

i understand why so many of my relatives live in the NW of WA and Darwin

'cept ill be on the east

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