Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Elephant Apple

Hindi Name : चालट्टा | Scientific Name : Dillenia indica
Family : Dilleniaceae
Uses : The fleshy sepals surrounding the fruit is edible and tastes like unripe apple. It is usually eaten with curries or made into jams. The timber was used for building houses, ships, and telegraph poles. The fruit pulp is used as a hair wash. Bark, leaves, crushed fruits and juice are drunk for cough, cold, fever, diarrhoea and stomach disease. Dry bark with the seeds of Sesamum orientale are made into a paste for applying on blistering boils. Barks and leaves are used as haemostatic. The leaf and bark of the tree are used as both astringent and laxative. The bruised bark is used as a cataplasm in arthritis. The fruit juice is used in cough mixture and also as a cooling beverage for toning up the nervous system. The juice of the fruit, mixed with sugar and water, is used as a cooling beverage and used as a cardio tonic. The plant is aphrodisiac and promotes virility.
Native: South East Asia
General Description:

It is an evergreen large shrub or small to medium-sized tree growing to 15m tall. The leaves are 15-36cm long, with a conspicuously corrugated surface with impressed veins, like potato chips. The flowers are large, up to 5in across, with five white petals and numerous yellow stamens. Flowers arise solitary at the ends of the twigs, facing downward. The sepals are rounded and yellowish green. The fruit is a 5-12cm diameter aggregate of 15 carpels, each carpel containing five seeds embedded in an edible pulp.