MEET THE LUSCIOUS LANZONES

By Henrylito D. Tacio

Lance is an American from Hawaii who is married to a Filipina. The couple is blessed with three two daughters and one son. When his wife was pregnant with their second child, she craved for lanzones but Lance didn't know what it was so he bought her a lychee. She complained that it was not the kind of fruit she wanted.

Last year, the family finally visited the Philippines. While in the country, Lance saw a vendor selling what he thought was grapes. He bought some and tasted it. It was only later that he knew it was lanzones. His comment: "Very good. Now, I can say why my wife could tell the difference."

In the Philippines, the harvest of lanzones is celebrated every year in October with a weekend of street dancing, parade and pageants in the town of Mambajao. Like most festivals, the celebration includes an exhibit of agri-cottage industry products, barangay beautification, indigenous sports, tableau of local culture, grand parade of the lanzones which is the golden and extra sweet fruit found in the entire province of Camiguin.

Lanzones is grown throughout the entire Southeast Asia, ranging from Malaysia (where it is known as langsat) to Vietnam (lon bon and bon bon). It is also grown in India and Thailand (called langsad or longkong). Outside the region, it has also been successfully transplanted and introduced to Hawaii and Surinam.

In the Philippines, where it is locally referred to as the lanzones, the plant is grown mostly on the northern island of Luzon due to the species' narrow range of conditions favorable to its survival. It is also found in abundance on Northern Mindanao particularly in places as Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Camiguin, Cotabato, and Davao del Sur. However, over 75% of all lanzones is grown in Sulu province.

Lanzones fruits are ovoid, roundish orbs around five centimeters in diameter, usually found in clusters of two to thirty fruits. Each round fruit is covered by yellowish, thick, leathery skin. Underneath the skin, the fruit is divided into five or six slices of translucent, juicy flesh. The flesh is slightly acidic in taste, although ripe fruits are sweeter. Green, seeds are present in around half of the segments, usually taking up a small portion of the segment although some seeds take up the entire segment's volume. In contrast with the sweet-sour flavor of the fruit's flesh, the seeds are extremely bitter. The sweet juicy flesh contains sucrose, saccharose, fructose and glucose.

The fruit's flavor and sweetness is so unique that it attracts bats. In Indonesia, growers wrap pungent bundles of shrimp paste and hang them on the trees to distract or repel the bats. In Paete, Laguna, people hang kerosene lamps on the trees to do the same task. The resulting view of hundreds of hanging kerosene lamps on a hillside is said to be spectacular.

The fruit of lanzones is eaten fresh. However, there is a sap to the fruit's skin that is extremely sticky and fairly gross on the tongue – kind of like spreading a faster drying glue on your tongue. To be free from that sap, don't break the skin of the fruit using your finger but just hold it and press between your thumbs and fingers snugly to break open. Then, enjoy eating the fruit.

There are several varieties of lanzones but the three most common grown are "Paete," "Camiguin," and "Jolo" cultivars. "Paete" is grown in Paete, Laguna and its surrounding towns. The Mindanao variety is grown in the southern part of the country, the "Duku" variety is found in limited numbers in Laguna and Oriental Mindoro.

In Southern Tagalog, lanzones is available from August to October and in Mindanao, peak season occurs from July to November. Secondary fruits may occur during January to April. In Thailand and Malaysia, the fruit is available from August to October.

The lanzones seed and rind is rich in tannin and contain chemical substances that are medicinally and industrially useful. The fresh peeling yielded a volatile oil, a resin, and some reducing acids. The resin is believed to be nontoxic and protective to the stomach against alcohol.

The decoction of bark and leaves is used for dysentery. The powdered bark is used to treat scorpion stings. The bark resin can be used for swellings, and is considered as an antispasmodic. Tincture prepared from the dried rind used for diarrhea. The dried fruit skins when burned emit an aromatic smell which repels mosquitoes. It also makes a pleasant room inhalant.

These days, however, the future of lanzones is not bright. Last year, "mussel scale insects have been ravaging lanzones trees in North Cotabato, affecting at least three towns and hundreds of small growers with losses reaching P5 million already," reported a local daily.

During the Kadayawan Festival in Davao last September, some people noticed the absence of lanzones, considered to be one of the major fruits of the city. Starting last year, lanzones production in Davao started to drop off severely that the City Agriculture Office has admitted that the situation has now reached the "really alarming level."

City agriculturist Rocelio Tabay said the lanzones farms in Davao City have been badly devastated by the infestation of scale insect. The environmental non-government organization Interface Development Interventions Incorporated has estimated the damage to the production loss to reach P6 million based on a survey conducted with affected lanzones farmers from the villages of Tawan-Tawan in Baguio District and Subasta in Calinan District.

Mussel scale insects (known in the science world as Lepidosaphes ulmi) attack the leaves of lanzones, eventually rendering the fruit with a sour taste. "Scale insects suck the sap of the leaves, causing it to defoliate, this impairs plant growth and causes loss of vigor and underdevelopment of fruits as it can no longer take nutrients from the leaves," explained Renato Reloba, chief of the regional crop protection center of the Department of Agriculture.

The Kendall Bioresearch Services said mussel scale insects "attack many deciduous trees and shrubs, including apples and other fruit and ornamental trees. Infestations are most severe on older trees and may impair plant growth and vigor. Eggs are laid under the scales in late summer."

Farmers can easily detect infestations as leaves of the tree turn reddish and defoliating. It can also be detected by placing a transparent tape on the leaves, as the tape traps insects.

Guillermo Millomeda, North Cotabato Integrated Pest Management officer-in-charge, urged fruit growers to refrain from using chemicals and suggested that infected branches should be cut to stop the spread of the insects.

Pepito Leysa, crop protection chief of Department of Agriculture Central Mindanao, advised lanzones growers to spray with pesticides the infected trees only if infestation is already severe.

Mussel scale insects have been earlier discovered in late 2004 in Banga and Tupi towns in South Cotabato and in Malungon and Maitum in Sarangani province. At that time, entomologists from the Bureau of Plant Industry found that an orange-colored (Cocconellid) beetle can contain the pests. Authorities are now propagating the beetles in a laboratory in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat.