- Botany: Mabolo is a medium-sized tree growing to a height of 20 meters. Leaves are leathery, oblong, up to 20 centimeters long, with a round base and acute tip. The blade is glossy green, smooth above and softly hairy below. Female flowers are axillary and solitary, larger than the male. Fruits are fleshy, globose, up to 8-10 centimeters in diameter, densely covered with short brown hairs. The pulp is edible. The fruit hairs have to be rubbed off before eating as it can cause peri-oral itching and irritation.
- Distribution: in forests, at low and medium altitudes. a shade tree it is planted along road and parks.
- Constituents: Ethyl acetate extract of air-dried leaves yielded (1) isoarborinol methyl ether, a mixture of α-amyrin palmitate, α-amyrin palmitoleate, ß-amyrin palmitate and ß-amyrin palmitoleate and squalene. Yeild triterpenes.
- Properties: It has an unpleasant, foul cheesy odor which can be dissipated by skin removal and processing.
• Considered astringent, antidiarrheal, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial.
• Studies have suggested antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-diarrheal, anti-tumor, anti-asthma, vasorelaxant properties. - Uses: fruit is edible, the tannin content declining as it ripens. A good source of vitamen’s, A, C and minerals. studies show that fruit has a good nutritive value.
- Studies: Antioxidant and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1)-induced effects of selected Taiwanese plants: 12 selected indigenous Taiwanese plants, including Diospyros discolor, were studied for their antioxidant activity, superoxide radicals scavenging and reducing power activities. D discolor extracts, among others, showed to contain abundant phenolic constituents suggesting a potential source of natural antioxidants.
Tree's the Lungs of the World 