Star Gooseberry – Nutritional Value, Health Benefits, Recipes

Star Gooseberry/Phyllanthus acidus, known as the Otaheite gooseberry, Malay gooseberry, Tahitian gooseberry, Country gooseberry, star gooseberry, strawberry, arbari, West India gooseberry, or simply gooseberry tree, is one of the trees with edible small yellow berries fruit in the family Phyllanthaceae. Despite its name, the plant does not resemble the gooseberry, except for the acidity of its fruits. It tastes sour and tart.

 

Phyllanthus acidus, known as the Star gooseberry, Malay gooseberry, Tahitian gooseberry, or simply gooseberry tree is a small deciduous tree with edible small yellow berries fruit in the Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family). Despite its name, the plant does not resemble the gooseberry, except for the acidity of its fruits. The plant is native to the coastal region of north-eastern Brazil and has been often wrongly ascribed to Madagascar, India, or Polynesia. It is now naturalized and cultivated pan-tropically in India, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, South Vietnam, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Polynesia, and all the larger islands of the West Indies.  Some of the popular common names of the plant are Indian-gooseberry, Malay-gooseberry, Otaheite-gooseberry, Gooseberry-tree, Tahitian-gooseberry, Star-gooseberry, Tahitian gooseberry tree, Gooseberry, Otaheite Gooseberry-tree, Otaheite gooseberry, Cela usiri, Cerejeira-do-Taiti, Grosellero, Jumbilin, Sour gooseberry, Ceremmè, Carmen, Goose Berry, Country gooseberry, West India gooseberry, Starberry and also arbari.

 

Genus name comes from the Greek words phyllon meaning leaf, and anthos meaning flower, as in some species the flowers are produced on the edges of a leaf-like branch. The specific epithet acidus means acidic, in reference to the sharp acidity of the fruits. The common name gooseberry refers to the acidity of the fruits, which is similar to European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa). The tree is not only cultivated for its ornamental value, but also for food and medicinal purposes. Although it produces fruit throughout the year, it is mostly collected in January except in South India.

Different parts of the plant are used for food. In Bangladesh and Indonesia, the cooked leaves are eaten. Fruit is eaten fresh and is occasionally used as a flavoring for other dishes in Indonesia. It is candied in sugar or pickled in salt, used in chutney, relish, or preserves. In the Philippines, it is used to make vinegar as well as eaten raw, soaked in salt or vinegar-salt solution, and sold along the roadside. Similarly different parts of the plants are used medicinally. Peppered leaves are used to make a poultice to treat sciatica, lumbago, and rheumatism, while the seeds are used as a cathartic and the root, if prepared with care, as a purgative. The syrup is used to medicate the stomach, and in India, the fruit is eaten as a blood-enhancer for the liver.

Star Gooseberry Facts

Plant Description

Star Gooseberry is a small, monoecious, deciduous, glabrous tree or shrub that normally grows about 2 to 9 m (6½ to 30 ft.) tall. The tree’s dense and bushy crown is composed of thickish, tough main branches, at the ends of which are clusters of deciduous, greenish, 15-to-30-cm long branchlets. The plant is found growing in gardens, open disturbed areas, quarries, and in-home gardens. The plant grows on a wide range of soils but prefers rather moist sites.

Leaves

The branchlets bear compound, alternate leaves that are ovate or lanceolate in form, 14-25 inches long, with short petioles and pointed ends. Leaflets are 2-3.5 inches long and 1-1.5 inches wide, arranged alternately along the rachis, ovate or obliquely ovate, acute or somewhat acuminate, base rounded or somewhat wedge-shaped. They are green and smooth on the upper side and blue-green on the underside. In general, the Otaheite gooseberry tree very much looks like the bilimbi tree. Both the leaves and branchlets are deciduous.

Flower

The flowers can be male, female or hermaphrodite. They are small and pinkish and appear in clusters in 5-to-12.5-cm long panicles. Flowers are formed at leafless parts of the main branches, at the upper part of the tree. Flowers are small, axillary in fascicles, with 2–6 staminate flowers in proximal axils. Pistillate flowers are cauliflorous on old branchlets, rarely in distal axils. Staminate flowers are 4-merous with free filaments and anthers that dehisce vertically. Pistillate flowers are 4-merous, borne on a stout pedicel, with deeply lobed or split disk, connate, deeply bi-fi d styles, staminodes, and a superior,  glabrous, 6–8 lobed ovary. Flowering normally takes place in between April and May.

Fruit

Fertile flowers are followed by drupaceous, oblate fruit, 1.5–2.5 cm diameter, shallowly 6- or 8-lobed, greenish-yellow to pale yellow, waxy and glossy, and borne on 2–4 mm long pedicels. The flesh is firm, thin, sour enclosing a hard, bony, grooved stone containing 6–8 smooth, globose, 5–8 mm diameter seeds. Fruits develop in dense clusters along the old branchlets.

The tree usually flowers and produces fruit twice a year. Fruits appear simultaneously with the flowers. So, the tree usually has fruits hanging from it, at any time of the year. The fruit is used chiefly for pickling and for the preparation of preserves. It makes an excellent jam. Star Gooseberry is native to Malay Islands and Madagascar and is frequently grown in India for its acid fruit.

Health benefits of Star Gooseberry

Listed below are some of the popular health benefits of using star gooseberry

1. Treat Constipation

Star gooseberry is considered beneficial in treating constipation. Because it consists of lots of Vitamin C, Star gooseberry fruit has the benefit of digestion and overcoming constipation. Just like other vitamin C fruit, this fruit is suitable for intestinal cleansing as well.

2. Healthy Skin

Vitamin C contained in fruit provides benefits to our skin. The skin will be bright, clean, and soft. Vitamin C plays an important role in skin health affairs. Therefore try Star gooseberry consumption in any form because vitamin C is high.

3. Good for Digestion

Star gooseberry fruit becomes the fruit that can help slim the body. Star gooseberry has a sour taste and can also make the stomach become slimmer when consumed frequently. This is because the digestion is supported and the appetite is reduced somewhat due to the taste of acid on the tongue. Keep in mind this drug works very strongly, therefore consume it efficiently only occasionally.

4. Cure Cancer

You can use young Star gooseberry leaves as much as 1/4 handheld mixed with leaf 1/3 handheld leaf, ladle up as 1/2 finger, Chinese grading 1/2 finger, sugar Renau 3 fingers, washed and cut into pieces. Boil all ingredients using 3 cups water until the remaining 3/4 parts are only. Chill and strain and drink three times a day.

5. Treating Asthma

To cure your asthma you can take about 6 seeds of Star gooseberry, mixed with red onion 2 grains, kara root 1/4 handheld, and 8 grains of litchi. All materials are washed and then ground. Boil all ingredients and let it boil from 2 cups water until the remaining 1 1/2 cups. Then drink boiled water Star gooseberry leaves earlier.

6. Healthy Bones

Star gooseberry fruit can nourish the bones. Calcium and iron contained in this fruit can help nourish the bones to keep strong and not porous. Bones will be stronger.

Traditional uses and benefits of Star Gooseberry

• Acidic fruits are considered to have medicinal properties and are consumed as blood-enhancer for the liver.
• The syrup is also used in the treatment of stomach ailments.
• Peppered leaves are used to make a poultice for the treatment of rheumatism.
• Latex is recognized with emetic and purgative activity.
• The bark is heated with coconut oil and spread on eruptions on feet and hands in Indonesia.
• An infusion of the root is taken to alleviate asthma in Java.
• Roots are used in the treatment of psoriasis of the feet in Bornea.
• Although the roots are weakly poisonous, they used to be boiled and the vapor inhaled to relieve cough and headache in Malaysia.
• Leaf decoctions are applied to urticaria, and a decoction of the bark is used to treat bronchial catarrh in the Philippines.
• Fruits are taken as a liver tonic to enrich the blood in India.
• Juice of the root bark is reported to have been used in criminal poisonings.
• It is used in the treatment of psoriasis, sciatica, rheumatism, constipation, renal calculus, diabetes, asthma, gonorrhea, amnesia, and piles.
• The syrup is prescribed as a stomachic, and the seeds are cathartic.
• Leaves, with added pepper, are poultice on sciatica, lumbago, or rheumatism.
• Decoction of the leaves is given as a sudorific.
• Because of the mucilaginous nature of the leaves, they are taken as a demulcent in cases of gonorrhea.
• The root is severely purgative and regarded as toxic in Malaya but is boiled and the steam inhaled to relieve coughs and headaches.
• A root infusion is taken in very small doses to alleviate asthma.
• Externally, the root is used to treat psoriasis of the soles of the feet.
• Juice of the root bark, which consists of saponin, gallic acid, tannin, and a crystalline substance which may be lupeol, has been used in criminal poisoning.
• Bark yields a decoction, which is used in bronchial catarrh.
• The root is drastically purgative and regarded as toxic in Malaya but is boiled and the steam inhaled to relieve coughs and headaches.
• In Borneo, leaves are used, with pepper, for poulticing for lumbago, or sciatica, and the root is used externally to treat psoriasis of the soles of feet.
• Extract from the root to cure skin diseases especially relief from itching in Thailand.
• Leaves are used as one of the ingredients in Thai medicine to control fever.

Culinary Uses

• Mature fruits are acidic, eaten fresh or as pickles.
• Fruit flesh is added to many dishes in Indonesia as a flavoring.
• Fruit juice is used to make cold drinks in the Philippines.
• Ripe and unripe fruits are served as a relish, syrup, or sweet preserve in Malaysia.
• Fruits are also combined with other fruits in making chutney or jam, because of their setting properties.
• Young leaves are cooked as a vegetable in Indonesia, Thailand, and India.
• Fruit juice added with sugar is used as cold drinks.
• Fruits are also made used to prepare chutney, rely upon, or preserve along with other fruits.
• The flesh must be sliced from the stone, or the fruits must be cooked and then pressed through a sieve to separate the stones.
• Sliced raw flesh can be covered with sugar and let stand in the refrigerator for a day.
• Bahamian cooks soak the whole fruits in salty water overnight to reduce the acidity, then rinse, boil once or twice, discard the water, then boil with an equal amount of sugar until thick, and put up in sterilized jars without removing seeds.
• Ripe or unripe Otaheite gooseberry is cooked and served as a relish, or made into a thick syrup or sweet preserve in Malaya.
• Fruits are candied, or pickled in salt.
• They are used to make vinegar in the Philippines.
• Fruits are excellent for processing into pickles and sweetened dried fruits.
• In Indonesia, the sour fruits are used as a condiment in cooking to flavor dishes and served as a substitute for Assam and used as an ingredient in sambal and sayur or used in rojak mixture.

Star Gooseberry Pickle

Ingredients

• 2 cups star gooseberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp. gingerly oil
• 3 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 2 tsp. fenugreek powder
• 1/2 tsp. asafetida
• 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp. chopped ginger
• 1 tsp. mustard
• 4 red chilies – cut into pieces
• 4 green chilies – chopped
• 1 bunch curry leaves
• Salt as required

Directions

1. Wash and clean the star gooseberries, and drain the water.
2. Keep the star gooseberries in a vessel, add salt and 1/2 cup water, and boil it for 15 minutes in medium flame.
3. Remove from stove and drain the water, preferably through a strainer.
4. Keep a pan on the stove and add 1 tbsp. of gingerly oil, and sauté the gooseberries for about 5-7 minutes, then keep aside.
5. Keep another pan on the stove; add the remaining 2 tbsp. oil.
6. Add the mustard seeds. After they splutter add ginger, garlic, green chilies, red chilies, curry leaves, etc.
7. When they mix well, add fenugreek powder, turmeric powder, chili powder, and asafetida. Mix well.
8. Add the star gooseberries and mix well for about 5 minutes.
9. Now your pickle is ready.

Other Facts

• Wood is light-brown, fine-grained, attractive, fairly hard, strong, tough, and durable if seasoned and used for utensils and other small objects.
• Bark has limited use in India as a tanning agent.
• Wood is used for fuel.
• Fruits mature in 90-100 days.
• It is used for utensils and other small objects.

Precautions

• The juice of the root bark is weakly poisonous.
• It has been used in criminal poisoning.
• It was reported to produce headaches, sleepiness, and deaths accompanied by severe abdominal pains.
• Root paste is applied externally to prevent itching and to treat general skin ailments.
• Boil the leaves and use this water for a bath to take care of measles and chickenpox.

References

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