Averrhoa carambola

Averrhoa carambola

Plant | Averrhoa carambola | Averrhoa carambola  or Carambola is a slow growing tree from the Malay Region. In nature, the trees will reach about 30 feet (9 m) tall and about half as wide. The alternate, odd-pinnate leaves are somewhat sensitive -- leaves fold together at night, much like mimosas.

The trees produce a fruit known as a star fruit, which is an astringent fruit with a sweet and sour flavor. The slow growing nature of these trees makes them an excellent container tree. The trees are hardy in USDA zones 9-11. and The flowers are arranged in small clusters on the ends of the branches or sometimes on the larger stems and trunk, each cluster is attached to the tree with red stalks. The bell shaped, perfect flowers, are produced in loose panicles that are much-branched with pedicellate flowers; each flower is around 6 mm wide, with 5 petals that have recurved ends. The fruits are showy with an oblong shape: they are longitudinally 5- to 6-angled and 6.35-15 cm long and up to 9 cm wide. The fruits have a thin, waxy skin that is orange-yellow colored. The juicy fruits are yellow inside when ripe and have a crisp texture and when cut in cross-section are star shaped. The fruits have an oxalic acid odor, which varies between plants from strong to mild, the taste also varies from very sour to mildly sweetish. Each fruit may have up to twelve 6-12.5 mm long seeds, which are flat, thin and brown. Some cultivated forms produce fruits with no seeds.

Averrhoa carambola

 Medicinal Uses in body human.

In India, the ripe fruit is administered to halt hemorrhages and to relieve bleeding hemorrhoids. The dried fruit or the juice may be taken to counteract fevers.
A conserve of the fruit is said to allay biliousness and diarrhea and to relieve a "hangover" from excessive indulgence in alcohol. A salve made of the fruit is employed to relieve eye afflictions.
In Brazil, the carambola is recommended as a diuretic in kidney and bladder complaints, and is believed to have a beneficial effect in the treatment of eczema.
In Chinese Materia Medica it is stated: "Its action is to quench thirst, to increase the salivary secretion, and hence to allay fever."
A decoction of combined fruit and leaves is drunk to overcome vomiting. Leaves are bound on the temples to soothe headache. Crushed leaves and shoots are poulticed on the eruptions of chicken-pox, also on ringworm.
The flowers are given as a vermifuge. In southeast Asia, the flowers are rubbed on the dermatitis caused by lacquer derived from Rhus verniciflua Stokes.
Burkill says that a preparation of the inner bark, with sandalwood and Alyxia sp., is applied on prickly heat. The roots, with sugar, are considered an antidote for poison. Hydrocyanic acid has been detected in the leaves, stems and roots.
A decoction of the crushed seeds acts as a galactagogue and ernmenagogue and is mildly intoxicating. The powdered seeds serve as a sedative in cases of asthma and colic.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)