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15 August 2014
KEPEL THE FRUIT THAT WILL MAKE YOU FRAGRANT
Dr. Chiranjit Parmar186/3 Jail Road
Mandi HP [email protected]; 01905-222810
We eat fruits are for food, for energy, for vitamin C, for
mineral nutrients, fibre etc. But can you imagine that there also
exists a fruit in the world which is eaten for
fragrant. Yes, there is a fruit like that among 4500 edible
fruits existing on this earth which if eaten regularly for 4-5
days, the body turns pleasantly fragrant and start smelling
like
violets. All the body secretions including urine develop a
fragrance resembling that of violet flowers. Even the breath also
starts smelling fragrant.
Kepel fruits
This fruit is kepel. It is also called burahol in some areas.
The botanical name of this fruit is Stelechocarpus burahol. It
belongs to the family Annonaceae belong popular Indian fruits like
sitaphal, ramphal and hanumanphal.
Kepel is a native of South East Asia growing most commonly
through out Malesia. It has also been introduced into Australia,
the Philippines and Florida. However,
commercial cultivation of this fruit is only in Java Island of
Indonesia. Javanese people have a strong liking for kepel and it
also offered for sale there in local market.
The fruits of kepel are round and looking brown from outside.
These are borne directly on trunk like the fruits of jackfruit.
These are 6-8 cm wide. When the fruits
and fit for eating, the green inside pulp turns orange
The pulp is creamy, light orange, tasty, pleasantly aromatic
with undertones of coconut. Kepel fruits are very fondly eaten
local people in Java.
But there was also a time, when common citizens of Java were not
permitted to harvest and eat kepels. The entire harvest was
reserved for use by the wives and consorts ofrulers and other
social elite.
The kepel tree:
Kepel is a large evergreen tree. It can grow upto 20 metres
tall. Like most tropical trees, it is also a slow growing tree. The
bearing starts after 8-9 years. It has attractive foliage
which keeps changing colour with age. The flowers look white to
pinkish cream and 1-3 cm in diameter. The female flowers are borne
directly on the trunk. On the whole, kepel is
an attractive tree and also suitable for landscaping purposes.
The kepel tree is considered to be one of the most beautiful of all
tropical ornamental/fruit trees.
New plants of kepel are raised from seed which is hard and
therefore takes a few months for germination. It has also been
observed that the viability of kepel
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So, only fresh seeds should be used for sowing. Vegetative
methods of propagation like cuttings and air layering have been
tried, but have not succeeded yet..
Prospects in India:
Kepel grows best in a hot, humid climate. Such climate exists in
most North Indian plains, No precise information about its
sensitivity to cold and therefore it might be risky to try it
in
frost prone locations. So chances of its successful growing are
there many parts of Punjab, Haryana and even low hill areas of
Himachal Pradesh. So some enterprising farmers
should try to grow Kepel here.
In tropics, kepel tree keep producing fruits all the year round.
But under subtropical climate there might be only one single
crop.
Kepel not only produces fruit, but also provides very good
quality wood which is used for timber and furniture making.
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