Sapotillier

Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is an evergreen forest tree native to Central America, Mexico, and possibly the West Indies, but is now cultivated throughout the New World and Old World tropics. It may reach 20 m in height. The fruit, which is 3 to 8 cm long, is brown with black shining seeds embedded in the pulp. Immature fruits produce an unpleasant latex and should not be eaten. The seeds should be removed since they reportedly have a tendency to lodge in one's throat. Sapodilla is mainly a dessert fruit. It contains around 15% total sugars (roughly equal amounts of glucose and fructose) and 10 mg vitamin C per 100 g. The main acid constituent is malic acid. There is limited international trade in Sapodilla fruits. (Vaughan and Geissler 1997) Wild and cultivated Sapodilla trees can be tapped for their milky latex, which coagulates into "chicle". At one time, chicle was important in the manufacture of chewing gum. (Vaughan and Geissler 1997)

Manilkara zapota, the sapodilla, is a tropical evergreen tree in the Sapotaceae (sapota family) native to and long cultivated by the Aztecs and Mayas in Mexico and Central America for its pear-flavored edible fruit and for its latex, chicle, the original source of chewing gum. Sapodilla is now cultivated in various tropical regions, including India, various parts of southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the U.S. (Florida) for its fruit, the latex tapped from the bark, and occasionally for timber. The sapodilla was an important component of forests in its native range in the Yucatan region of Mexico and throughout Central America—by some estimates, the region once had around 100 million sapodilla trees. The sapodilla is a large attractive tree, sometimes planted as an ornamental, reaching 18 to 20 m (58 to 65 feet) when grown in the open, but up to 30 m (100 ft) in forest canopies. The pointed, elliptical leaves are alternate, spirally clustered at the branch tips, and are leathery and glossy green, 7.5 to 15.5 cm (3 to 6 in) long. The small white to pale green flowers are bell-shaped, enclosed by 6 sepals (outer flower parts), and are borne singly in the axils (where leaf meets stem). The fruits are large-seeded berries, up to 11.5 cm (4 in) across, with variable shape but often egg-shaped with thin, rusty brown, rough skin covering yellow-brown translucent juicy flesh with 3 to 12 shiny, dark brown to black mildly toxic seeds in a whorl in the center of the fruit. The edible flesh may have the grainy texture of a pear or may be smooth. Sapotilla is now used primarily for its fruits, which are high in vitamin C and are generally eaten fresh or prepared in purées, ice creams, or beverages. However, its production of latex, chicle, for chewing gum, which was first used by used by the Mayas, was of great economic importance in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize from the late 1800s through the 1940s, when chicle was a component of popular chewing gums developed and sold by companies such as Wrigley’s and Beech-Nut. During World War II, shortages of chicle resulted in rationing of chewing gum for soldiers, and helped spur the development of synthetic replacements. Despite a recent revival of chicle as a natural health-food alternative to synthetic gums, chicle-based gums made up just 3.5% of the chewing gum produced in 2007. (Bailey et al. 1976, Forero and Redclift 2007, Matthews 2009, Morton 1987, van Wyk 2005.)