Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Pomelo, Chinese Grapefruit

Hindi Name : चकोतरा | Scientific Name : Citrus grandis
Family : Rutaceae
Uses : The ripe fruit is eaten raw and made into preserves and fruit drinks. The fruit can also be added to fruit salads or make into jams, marmalade etc. The fruit is large and thick-skinned, resembling a grapefruit but with a firmer, non-bitter flesh and less juice. The fruits are utilized as a source of pectin; peel can be candied and used as flavouring in cakes etc. The flowers are used for scenting tea. Various parts of the tree have traditional medicinal applications, including the leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. They are used to treat a range of conditions, including coughs, fevers and gastric disorders. A decoction of the fresh leaves, in combination with the leaves from some other aromatic species, is used in the treatment of coryza, influenza and headache by inhalation of the vapour from the boiling decoction. The fruit rind is an effective treatment for dyspepsia, colic and cough, in a daily dose of 4 to 12g in the form of a decoction. The seed envelopes contain pectin, which is a haemostatic. The seeds, stripped of their envelope and charred, are applied externally as a treatment for impetigo. An essential oil is obtained from the flowers. The aromatic flowers are used to make perfume in Vietnam. The wood is used for tool handles.
Native: Southeast Asia
General Description:

It is a low-branching, evergreen tree growing 5-10m tall with occasional specimens up to 15m. The spreading branches bear spines up to 5cm long, though there are some forms in cultivation that are free of spines. The tree is widely cultivated for its edible fruit in tropical and subtropical regions and, even if the fruit is of inferior quality, the tree may still be grown for its various medicinal applications. It has the biggest flowers (with five sepals and petals and 20–25 stamens, with large linear anthers) and produces the biggest fruits in Citrus, which are oblate-spheroid or sub pyriform with large, thick, wrinkled seeds. The fruit usually has a thick peel and very large pulp vesicles compared with other Citrus species. Young angular twigs, leaf midribs, and large veins and petioles are often pubescent. Leaves are large or very large, oval or elliptic-oval, with a blunt point at the tip and a broadly rounded base, often subcordate and even slightly overlapping the winged petiole, the petiole is broadly winged, and more or less cordate.