Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

The santol grows quickly to 15-45 m. tall, with the trunk becoming buttressed when old. Younger branches have dense brown hair. The leaves are compound, with 3 elliptic to oblong leaflets, 20-25 cm long, blunt at the base and pointed at the tip. The greenish, yellowish, or pinkish-yellow, 5-petaled flowers, about 1 cm long are bunched together in clusters 15-30 long. The fruit is round or oval shaped, with wrinkles extending a short distance from the base, 4-7.5 cm wide, yellowish to golden, sometimes flushed with pink. The fuzzy rind may be thin or thick and contains a thin, milky juice.
There are two varieties of Santol: yellow and red. The yellow fruit has a thin rind, a thicker pulp around the seeds is generally sweeter. Only the yellow variety is now found wild in Malayan forests. Fruits of the red variety have a thicker rind, less pulp around the seeds and are sour. These varieties are not very clearly defined and characteristics of the two kinds tend to grade into each other.
(Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

The leaves of santol can be used to treat skin infections or rashes. In the Philippines, fresh leaves are placed on the body to cause sweating and a patient is bathed in a Santol tea to bring down fevers. The bark contains sandoricum acid, an unnamed, toxic alkaloid, and a steroidal sapogenin, and can be applied to ringworm. The root is given to women after childbirth, and is a remedy for diarrhea.
(Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

Santol wood has a decent grain, but its quality is variable. Because it is such an abundant tree, however, it is commonly treated and used as posts in homes or fences. The wood is also commonly used as fuel. In the Philippines, the bark is used in tanning fishing lines. (Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

The santol probably native to SE Asia and long ago was introduced into India, the Andaman Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Moluccas, Mauritius, and the Philippines where it has become naturalized. The tree is completely intolerant to frost and has only survived introduction to Neotropics in a few locations in Central America and Southern Florida.
(Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

Both the rind, as well as the pulp which clings tightly to the seeds, is edible and can be eaten straight off the tree, made into a jam or jelly, or preserved in syrup. Young fruits are candied in Malaysia by paring, removing the seeds, boiling in water, then boiling a second time with sugar. Very ripe fruits are fermented with rice to make an alcoholic drink. (Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

The Caribbean fruit fly (Anastrepha suspensa) disfigures the rind, but doesn’t penetrate into the pulp.
(Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Archtiecture Program (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/santol.html))

The common name "Lolly Fruit" comes from the fact that you have to suck at the seeds to get flavor out of them.
(http://www.capetrib.com.au/santol.htm)

We currently have 3 herbarium specimens for Sandoricum koetjape in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 023594 - collected by Michael Evans in 1966
• 016802 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1988
• 048608 - collected by S. K. Pell in 2008