Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Jackfruit

Hindi Name : कटहल | Scientific Name : Artocarpus heterophyllus
Family : Moraceae
Uses : It is a rich source of several high-value compounds with potential beneficial physiological activities. It is well known for its antibacterial, antifungal, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Its fruit is large, spiky, and composite. Its leaves are green, glossy, and leathery. Jackfruit is cultivated for its wide range of uses. Ashes of the leaves are used for treating ulcers, diarrhoea, boils, stomach-ache and boils. Seeds are aphrodisiac and as a cooling tonic like the pulp. Root decoction can reduce fever and can treat diarrhoea, skin diseases and asthma. The pulp is an anti-syphilitic and a vermifuge. The latex has an anti-bacterial activity similar to that of papaya latex. The fruit is edible, either consumed raw or cooked in many ways. The pulp of young fruit and the seeds are cooked as vegetable. The rind of the fruit produces a jelly. The seed can be grounded into a powder and used in biscuit-making. Jackfruit can be used to control soil erosion due to its extensive root system. Also, it is a fast-growing tree. The wood is a very useful timber for it is resistant to termite attack and fungal and bacterial decay. It can also be used for fuel.
Native: India to Malaya Peninsula
General Description:

It is an evergreen tree growing up to 25m high, bark is 10-12mm thick, blackish-grey, mottled with green and black, exfoliating in large thick flakes, exfoliated surface orange-red; blaze pinkish-yellow; exudation milky white latex; trunk with warty tubercles; branchlets glabrous. Leaves are simple, alternate; stipules are 3-5cm long, lateral, ovate-lanceolate, sheathing, glabrous, cauducous; petiole is 20-40mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina is 8-23 x 3-13cm, obovate, obovate-oblong, or elliptic-ovate, base acute, round or cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous and shining above and scabrous beneath; lateral nerves in 6-8 pairs, pinnate, prominent, arched, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers are unisexual, minute, yellowish-green, in spikes enclosed by spathe-like bracts, male from young branches, catkin narrow-cylindric; perianth 2-lobed, puberulous; stamen 1; filament somewhat flattened, stout; anthers ovate-oblong; female catkins from the trunk and mature branches, more massive, perianth with strongly projecting conical apex; ovary is 0.3mm, superior, globose-obovoid; style is exserted; stigma spathulate. Fruit is a sorosis 30-45 x 20-25cm, oblong, tuberculate, tubercles conical yellowish-green, fruiting perianth yellow to light orange, fleshy; seeds are 10-12 x 8-10mm, elliptic-oblong, smooth, glossy.