Elephant Apple Scientific Name Dillenia indica is native to southeastern Asia, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka east to southwestern China, Vietnam, and south through Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Elephant apple is a large evergreen shrub small to medium size tree growing to 15 m tall.
The plant can be found growing in the evergreen forest or tropical rain forest, often along rivers and prefers well-drained sandy loam.
It grows best in a fertile, slightly acid soil.
The trunk is straight with 6 feet in circumference, with a dense rounded crown, straight but not high.
Barks are reddish brown in colour and exfoliating.
The young branches are brown pubescent, glabrescent and contain leaf scars.
The tree’s branch is used to make good firewood.
This fruit can be, consumed once it is, ripened and the fleshy sepals form the edible portion.
This fruit has abundant sugar in it, but still, taste sour this is because of the acid present in the fruit that adds to the tangy flavour.
Due to its strong flavour and pungent flavour, it is, seldom eaten raw, it is, mainly used in flavouring curries that are, consumed as a local delicacy.
The fruit is a crucial ingredient in making jams and jellies.
Elephant apple is a fruit rich in beta-carotene, vitamin B, vitamin C, thiamine, and riboflavin. It is also rich in carbohydrates and proteins.
In Indonesia where elephant apple is quite popular and, is, eaten in breakfast by mixing chalta with honey.
The pulp of the fruit is extracted and added to make a spicy chutney.
Consuming a mixture of the bark and the stem of chalta has proven to reduce heart.