The jackfruit, jakfruit or nangka (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as 55 kg (120 pounds) in weight, 90 cm (35 inches) in length, and 50 cm (20 inches) in diameter. A mature jackfruit tree produces some 200 fruits per year, with older trees bearing up to 500 fruits in a year. The jackfruit is a multiple fruit composed of hundreds to thousands of individual flowers; the fleshy petals of the unripe fruit are eaten by humans, in addition to the ripened fruit. The jackfruit tree is well-suited to tropical lowlands and is widely cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world, particularly from South Asia to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Its ripe fruit can be sweet depending on grown variety, which is commonly used in desserts. Canned green jackfruit has a mild taste and meat-like texture that lends itself to being called "vegetable meat". Jackfruit is commonly used in South and Southeast Asian cuisines. Both ripe and unripe fruits are consumed. It is available internationally, canned or frozen, and in chilled meals, as are various products derived from the fruit, such as noodles and chips.
Names
The name jackfruit comes from Portuguese jaca added by physician and naturalist Garcia de Orta in his 1563 book Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India. In turn, jaca is derived from the Malayalam word ചക്ക chakka, when the Portuguese Empire arrived in India at Calicut on the Malabar Coast in 1499. Later the Malayalam name chakka was recorded by Hendrik van Rheede (1636–1691) in the third volume of Hortus Malabaricus. Henry Yule translated Hendrik's book in Jordanus Catalani's (fl. 1321–1330) Mirabilia descripta: the wonders of the East. The Malayalam ചക്ക chakka is derived from the Proto-Dravidian root kā(y) ("fruit, vegetable"). Centuries later, botanist Ralph Randles Stewart suggested it was named after William Jack (1795–1822), a Scottish botanist who worked for the East India Company in Bengal, Sumatra, and Malaya. Nangka is another name used in Philippine English borrowing from Tagalog related to nangkà in Cebuano and in Malay, both from the same Austronesian language family.
Description
Shape, trunk and leaves Artocarpus heterophyllus grows as an evergreen tree that has a relatively short trunk and dense treetop. It easily reaches heights of 9 to 21 m (30 to 69 feet) and trunk diameters of 30 to 80 cm (10 to 30 inches). It sometimes forms buttress roots. The bark of the jackfruit tree is reddish-brown and smooth. In the event of injury to the bark, a milky sap is released. The leaves are alternate and spirally arranged. They are gummy and thick and are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 2.5 to 7.5 cm (1 to 3 inches) long. The leathery leaf blade is 20 to 40 cm (7 to 15 inches) long and 7.5 to 18 cm (3 to 7 inches) wide, and is oblong to ovate in shape. In young trees, the leaf edges are irregularly lobed or split. On older trees, the leaves are rounded and dark green, with a smooth leaf margin. The leaf blade has a prominent main nerve and, starting on each side, six to eight lateral nerves. The stipules are egg-shaped at a length of 1.5 to 8 cm (5⁄8 to 3+1⁄8 inches).
Flowers
The inflorescences are formed on the trunk, branches or twigs (cauliflory). Jackfruit trees are monoecious, having both female and male flowers on a tree. The inflorescences are pedunculated, cylindrical to ellipsoidal or pear-shaped, to about 10–12 cm (4–4+3⁄4 inches) long and 5–7 cm (2–3 inches) wide. Inflorescences are initially completely enveloped in egg-shaped cover sheets which rapidly slough off. The flowers are small, sitting on a fleshy rachis. The male flowers are greenish, some flowers are sterile. The male flowers are hairy and the perianth ends with two 1 to 1.5 mm (3⁄64 to 1⁄16 inch) membrane. The individual and prominent stamens are straight with yellow, roundish anthers. Pollen grains are tiny, around 60 microns in diameter. After the pollen distribution, the stamens become ash-gray and fall off after a few days. Later, all the male inflorescences also fall off. The greenish female flowers, with hairy and tubular perianth, have a fleshy flower-like base. The female flowers contain an ovary with a broad, capitate, or rarely bilobed scar. The blooming time ranges from December until February or March.
Fruit
The ellipsoidal to roundish fruit is a multiple fruit formed from the fusion of the ovaries of multiple flowers. The fruits grow on a long and thick stem on the trunk. They vary in size and ripen from an initially yellowish-greenish to yellow, and then at maturity to yellowish-brown. They possess a hard, gummy shell with small pimples surrounded with hard, hexagonal tubercles. The large and variously shaped fruit have a length of 30 to 100 cm (10 to 40 inches) and a diameter of 15 to 50 cm (6 to 20 inches) and can weigh up to 55 kg (120 pounds) – the largest of all tree-borne fruits.
The fruits consist of a fibrous, whitish core (rachis) about 5–10 cm (2–4 inches) thick. Radiating from this are many individual fruits, 10 cm (4 inches) long. They are elliptical to egg-shaped, light brownish achenes with a length of about 3 cm (1+1⁄8 inches) and a diameter of 1.5 to 2 cm (9⁄16 to 13⁄16 inch). There may be about 100–500 seeds per fruit. The seed coat consists of a thin, waxy, parchment-like and easily removable testa (husk) and a brownish, membranous tegmen. The cotyledons are usually unequal in size, and the endosperm is minimally present. An average fruit consists of 27% edible seed coat, 15% edible seeds, 20% white pulp (undeveloped perianth, rags) and bark and 10% core. The fruit matures during the rainy season from July to August. The bean-shaped achenes of the jackfruit are coated with a firm yellowish aril (seed coat, flesh), which has an intense sweet taste at maturity of the fruit. The pulp is enveloped by many narrow strands of fiber (undeveloped perianth), which run between the hard shell and the core of the fruit and are firmly attached to it. When pruned, the inner part (core) secretes a sticky, milky liquid, which is hard to remove from the skin, even with soap and water. To clean the hands after "unwinding" the pulp, an oil or other solvent is used. For example, street vendors in Tanzania, who sell the fruit in small segments, provide small bowls of kerosene for their customers to cleanse their sticky fingers.
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