Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources

Vol. 1(2), June 2010, pp. 258-260

Short Communication

Elaeagnus kologa Schlecht. – An under

utilized edible and endemic fruit plant in

Nilgiris, the western ghats

S Paulsamy*, P Senthil Kumar, AM Ananda Kumar and

P Sathish Kumar

Department of Botany, Kongunadu Arts and Science College,

Coimbatore -641 029, Tamil Nadu, India

Received 21 April 2009; Accepted 21 October 2009

The wild plant species, Elaeagnus kologa Schlecht. belonging

to the family Elaeagnaceae, is endemic and generally distributed

in the high altitudes of Nilgiris in the margins of moist deciduous

forests with sizable populations. The fruits (drupe) of this species

are edible and reported to have high content of proteins, minerals

and vitamins comparable to common fruits like oranges, grapes,

guava and others. Its fruits are available in the month of March

and April and sold in the markets of Nilgiri district. For the past

few decades due to the nutritional significance, the fruits are

exploited severely by the local public, tribals and other herb

gatherers due to which the population of the species is getting

decreased. In addition, the lower germination percentage

determined is also a factor for the less population of the species in

Nilgiris. Hence, to conserve this species appropriate cultivation

technology must be developed and can be practiced in degraded

forests.

Keywords: Elaeagnus kologa, Thavittu palam, Kolungai fruits,

Under utilized species, Edible fruit, Nilgiris,

Nutritional contents.

IPC code; Int. cl.8—A61K 36/00, A01G 17/00

Introduction

Many under explored wild plants with edible fruits are available in natural vegetations all over the world. However, people are mainly utilizing the fruits of most popular horticultural crops like orange, banana, apple, grapes, etc. as supplementary food. Further, cultivation practices and post harvest technologies have adequately been formulated only for these commonly utilized species in order to meet the demand all over the year. In this context popularization of under utilized plants of edible fruits is most essential in the modern world of ever increasing population.

Elaeaganus kologa Schlecht. (Family-Elaeagnaceae) is unpopular and under utilized plant with edible fruits commonly distributed in the

margins of shola forests of Nilgiris at high altitudes. Locally it is known as ‘Thavittu palam’ or ‘Kolungai’ fruits. The rural people and tribal communities of Nilgiris generally use the fruits during season. This paper deals with the availability, chemical composition and importance of the fruits of E. kologa.

Materials and Methods Plant description and habitat

It is a shrub or straggler, grows up to 3-4 m height.

Fruits are drupe, elliptic-oblong, 10-20 X 5-10 mm

size and reddish in colour (Plate 1). This species is

generally distributed in the shola and other forest

margins at high altitudes between 1800 and 2300 m

above msl in Nilgiris, the western Ghats1. The

propagation of species is mainly by seeds. However,

early study shows that the seed germination

percentage of this species is low (<30%)2.

Field survey was conducted at monthly intervals

from June 2007 to May 2008 in 11 shola forests

of Nilgiris, such as Ebbenadu, Governor shola,

Honnathalai, Kammand, Kodappamand, Kolacombai,

Korakundah, Kothagiri terrace, Longwood, Thiashola

and Wenlockdown by observing 100 individuals in all

the 11 sholas to know the time of important

phenophases such as flowering and fruit formation in

this species. The fruits were collected in the month of

April 2008 and the moisture content was determined.

Then the shade dried fruits were subjected to

chemical analysis to determine the content of total

soluble solids, fatty acids, total sugars, reducing

sugars, non-reducing sugars, vitamin C, ash, protein

and the minerals, viz. phosphorus, potassium,

calcium, magnesium and iron3-11

.

——————

*Correspondent author

E-mail: paulsami@yahoo.com

Plate 1: Cluster of ripend fruits of the wild Kolungai plant

SHORT COMMUNICATION

259

Results and Discussion The observation on various phenophases of the

species in Nilgiri shola forests revealed that the peak

flowering period occurs during the months of

January-February followed by the fruiting during

March-April. A huge amount of fruits of this species

under the local name, ‘Thavittu palam’ are sold in the

vegetable markets of Ooty, Coonoor and Kothagiri,

the Nilgiris during the summer month, April. As per

the census taken from these markets, approximately

1.0-1.5 tons of fruits are harvested and sold in the

local markets every year. Further, the herb gatherers

informed that every well developed tree of this

species can yield 0.5-0.75 kg of fruits per year.

However, the fruit of this species is not popular in the

adjoining districts like Coimbatore and Erode located

in the plains. Moisture, certain reserves, vitamin C, ash and min-

eral contents of the fruits were estimated by standard methods. Except for moisture, other estimations were made by using shade dried fruits. The nutrient contents of the fruits of this species were compared with that of the other commonly used fruits as supplementary food in southern India. The moisture content of the fruits is determined to be 69% which is comparable to other fruits (78% in orange-Citrus aurantium Linn., 61% in banana-Musa paradisiaca Linn., 78% in apple-Pyrus malus Linn., 62% in guava–Psidium guajava Linn. and 90% in grape-Vitis vinifera Linn.). The percentage of reserves, viz. total soluble solids, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and protein were estimated to be 14.3, 8.51, 8.02, 0.27 and 4.8 respectively in this fruit. Of these reserves, the total soluble solids and protein contents were higher than that of the other fruits (total soluble solids and protein percentages of orange, banana, apple, guava and grape were 7.56, 12.04, 1.00, 10.00 and 9.5 and 1.23, 1.70, 0.76, 2.67 and 0.63, respectively. The percentages of other reserves, viz., total sugars (8.51), reducing sugars (8.02) and non-reducing sugars (8.27) in the fruits are noteworthy in comparison to other fruits (total sugars, reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars in orange, banana, apple, guava and grape are: 10.20, 3.55 and 0.01; 23.00, 24.60 and 14.6; 70.00, 56.00 and 0.45; 8.00, 4.20 and 7.36, and 14.87, 32.35 and 0.68%, respectively).

The acids available in Kolungai fruits (1.28%) are

considerably higher than that present in banana, 1.07,

apple, 0.19 and guava 0.75%. However, they are

determined to be lower than that available in orange,

2.14 and grape, 1.50%. The vitamin C present in

kolungai fruits (13.50%) is significantly higher than

that of the fruits of banana, 5.12 and grape, 3.44%. On

the other hand, it was lower than orange, 8.72, apple,

24 and guava, 34%. The ash content of kolungai fruits

(1.02%) is higher than that in orange, 0.4, banana, 0.8,

apple, 0.57, guava, 0.67 and grape, 0.31%.

The per cent minerals, viz., calcium, phosphorus,

potassium and magnesium are generally poor in

kolungai fruits (0.052, 0.057, 0.416 and 0.04%,

respectively) when compared to other fruits, viz.

orange, banana, apple, guava and grape. However, the

iron content of kolungai fruits (0.008%) is higher than

that available in the fruits of orange, 0.002, banana,

0.004 and apple 0.001%. Presence of high content of

nutrients and other reserves in the fruits of various

Elaeagnaceae members and others has already been

documented12-17

by other authors, hence supporting

present study.

Conclusion

Owing to rich amounts of total soluble solids,

acids, ash, protein and iron and availability of

considerable amount of vitamin C, sugars and

minerals like calcium, phosphorus, potassium and

magnesium, the fruits of kolungai can be used as a

supplementary food for better health care. However,

the availability of fruits of this species for a short

period in the year and less availability of plants are

the barriers met in this fact. To overcome these

problems development of post harvest technology for

the long-term storage and ever availability of the

fruits of E. kologa, development of appropriate

cultivation practices in degraded shola forests and

other forest habitats both by seeds and in vitro

regeneration, procurement of its seeds from the

consumers after the consumption of mesocarp for

propagation and conservation of wild genetic stock

are recommended.

References 1 Matthew KM, Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Diocesan Press,

Madras: 1981, Vols. I, II, III, pp. 324.

2 Paulsamy S, Final Technical Report of Ministry of

Environment and Forests, New Delhi sponsored project -

Evaluation of fire retardant species to form vegetational fire

breaks in Grass Hills, Western Ghats, 2001.

3 Khuriyati N and Matsuoka T, Near infrared transmittance

method for non destructive determination of soluble solids

content in growing tomato fruits, Environm Contr Biol, 2004,

42(3), 217-223.

4 Olmslead WH, Whitaker WM and Duden CW, Steam

distillation of the lower volatile fatty acids from a saturated

salt solution, J Biol Chem, 1930, 85, 109.

INDIAN J NAT PROD RESOUR, JUNE 2010

260

5 Hedge JE and Hofreiter BT, Carbohydrate chemistry In:

Whistler RL and Be Miller, J N (eds.), Academic Press,

New York, 17, 1962.

6 Somogyi M, Note on sugar determination, J Biol Chem,

1952, 200, 245.

7 Dubois MK, Gils JK, Hanniton PA, Robes and Smith F, Use

of phenol reagent for the determination of total sugar,

Anal Chem, 1956, 28, 350.

8 Harris LJ and Ray SN, Ascorbic acid, Lancet, 1935, 1, 462.

9 Ecrements F and Burell FP, Emission spectroscopy and

atomic absorption of major and trace elements in plants,

Italy, 1973.

10 Lowry OH, Rosenbrough NJ, Furrand AL and Randall RJ,

Protein measurement with Folin phenol reagent, J Biol

Chem, 1951, 193, 265.

11 Peach K and Tracey MV, Modern methods in plant analysis,

Vol. IV, Springer-Verlag, London, 1956.

12 Parmar C and Kaushal MK, Elaeagnus umbellata, In: Wild

Fruits, Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, 1982, 23-25.

13 Ayaz FA, Kadioglu A and Dorgan A, Soluble sugar

composition of Elaeagnus angustifolia Linn. var. orientalis

(Linn.) Kuntze (Russian olive) fruits, Trop J Bot, 1999, 23,

349-354.

14 Ahmad SD, Sabir MS, Juma M and Asad HS, Morphological

and biochemical variations in Elaeaganus umbellata, from

mountains of Pakistan, Acta Bot Croatia, 2005, 64 (1),

121-128.

15 Wang SY and Fordham IM, Differences in chemical

composition and antioxidant capacity among different

genotypes of autumn olive (Elaegnus umbellata Thunb.),

Food Technol Biotechnol, 2007, 45(4) 402-409.

16 Fasoyiro SB, Babalola SO and Owosibo T, Chemical

composition and sensory quality of fruit-flavoured Roselle

(Hibiscus sabdariffa) drinks, World J Agric Sci, 2005, 1(2),

161-164.

17 Ozeker E, Determination of fruit characteristics of “Marsh

seedless” grape fruit cultivar in Izmir (Turkey), Pak J Biol.

Sci., 2000, 3(1), 69-71;

18 Yadava LP and Gaurishanker, Exploiting genetic diversity in

guava (Psidium guajava Linn.) from Allahabad and

surrounding areas, PGR Newsletter, 2007, 149: 14-16.