15/08/2023
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Rambutan
Nephelium lappaceum L., commonly known as rambutan in the Philippines, it comes from family Sapindaceae. The fruit is also called ramboutan or ramboutanier in French, ramboetan in Dutch, ramboostan in India, shaotzu in Chinese, and chomchomor vaithieu in Vietnamese. The underutilized fruit is native to Malaysia and it was introduced to many tropical countries including the Philippines during prehistoric times.
The tree is medium to large-sized, about 15-25 meters high. Leaves are even pinnate with 2-4 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets are 10-20 centimeters long, elliptic to obovate, thin but leathery and dark green. Numerous small, greenish white flowers are in panicles on shoot tips. Rambutan fruits are globose to ovoid, 4-5 centimeters long, yellow or red when ripe and with fleshy spines. Rambutanβs aril is nearly white, translucent, subacid, juicy, and with an oblong or ovoid seed. Rambutan grows well from sea level to medium altitudes in places with a long rainy season. Rambutan can be propagated through seed, (which takes about 10-15 days to germinate) marcotting, inarching, cleft grafting and patch budding. Major pests are fruit borer and oriental fruitfly while the major disease is foot rot.
In the Philippines, flowering occurs from late March to early May while the fruiting season is from August to October. Fruits are harvested when fully ripe on the tree. In order to maintain the quality and freshness, rambutan fruits must be transported to local markets within three days of picking. The yield of rambutan may vary from year to year. Individual trees 8 years old or older can produce as much as 440 lbs or 200 kilograms in the first season, and 132 lbs or 60 kilograms on the next season. In the Philippines, the average production per tree of 21 selections was reported to be 264 lbs or 120 kilograms over a four year period, while the general average is only 106 lbs or 48 kilograms .
Rambutan fruit has 36% edible portion which contains (per 100 grams) 77.6 grams water, 87 kcal energy, 1.2 grams protein, 0.9 grams fat, 18.6 grams carbohydrates, 1.1 grams dietary fiber, 32 mg calcium, 16 mg phosphorous, 0.4 mg iron, 0.02 mg thiamine, 0.10 mg riboflavin, 0.5 mg niacin and 91 mg ascorbic acid.
Rambutanβs different faces
Various rambutan cultivars were introduced from our neighboring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, but only a few cultivars were eventually adopted in the Philippines. These are Maharlika, Seematjan and Seenjonja varieties. Mature Seematjan is reddish pink, egg shaped and weighs 35-48 grams. Peels and spines are red, soft and long with yellowish pink tips. The edible portion of the fruit is half the weight of the whole fruit, which is thick, juicy and very sweet. The edible portion easily separates from the seed. However, much of the seed covering adheres to the edible portion. Mature Seejonja on the other hand is bright red and smaller than Seematjan. It weighs 16-20 grams and the regularly arranged spines are short and soft. The edible portion is less than half the whole fruit by weight. The edible portion is relative thinner, juicier, sweeter and adheres tightly to the seed. The most popular variety is Maharlika, is round and weighs 19-28 grams with short and widely spaced spines. The outer portion is reddish pink and the spines are red and yellowish pink tips like Seematjan. Its edible portion is half as thick, juicy, sweet, easily separates from the seed and most of the seeds adheres to the flesh.
