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Philippine rose apples - tambis bearing tree

Mambusao, Capiz, Philippines.

 

Here Are The Benefits That The Rose Apple Fruit Gives To Our Health

 

Rose apple which is also known as water apple or “tambis” is a watery fruit that is native to Eastern Australia. This bell-shaped fruit has shinny skin that may vary from light pink to red or yellow and green. Its white flesh contains lots of juice and is foamy.

 

This fruit is actually very rich in fibers, proteins, vitamins and iron. It brings lots of benefits to our health and here are some of them: The risk of breast cancer on women may be reduced by including low-fat foods in the diet and rose apple could be a great food for that.

 

Store the seeds of rose apple fruit for at least 4 days and grind it into fine powder. Add the powder in a glass of water and give to the person suffering from diarrhea.

 

The sweet and pleasant smell of rose apple, plus its juice, help reduce the body temperature.

 

It is rich in Vitamin C which helps reduce the cholesterol in the body.

 

If you love eating this fruit, you will love it even more after knowing this.

 

Finally, proof positive that “tambis” and “makopa” for Visayans at least, are distinct yet closely related fruit. It all started out with this first post several years ago, which referred to both of these species as tambis, as I had always done as a child. Then, one of my readers was perturbed by my lack of tambis/makopa knowledge, so I did a follow up post here(worth reading if you are really interested in the difference between the two fruit) to positively identify the scientific names of both fruit. That same reader sent me some photos many months ago but I couldn’t figure out how to get them into a publishable form, so I had to wait until I got my hands on both fruit at the same time (which isn’t so easy as the seasons apprarently barely overlap). Tambis, on the left in the photo above or water apple or syzgium aqueum and makopa, on the right or malay apple or syzgium malacenssis…

 

You can clearly see from the cross-section cuts that the skin, shape and seed of the fruits differ, and I have to say I am partial to the taste of tambis, with the thin skin and often refreshing and sweetish pulp while the makopa is denser, and at least the ones I tried, less tasty. But I have to add that I saw lots of brilliant looking makopa on a recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia so maybe those would have tasted better than the ones I have eaten here…

 

For many folks on the island of Luzon, they would refer to either of these fruits as makopa, and if a perusal of neighborhood trees is a good sample, I think there are more “tambis”trees than “makopa” trees in Manila and the surrounding areas. What’s the big deal anyway? Just one of accuracy… And as I mention in earlier posts, even the venerable Doreen Fernandez and Desmond Tate seem to have missed the subtle distinction between the two fruit… so if they were a bit confused, what about the rest of us?

 

 

 

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Uploaded on May 27, 2009
Taken on May 10, 2009