Philippine lanzones, sweet and nutritious
Baskets of the sweet tasting lanzones, grown, celebrated, and a
source of understandable pride of at least five Philippine provinces, have
started dotting markets and sidewalks of burgeoning Metro Manila, including a
stretch of Elliptical Road in Quezon City.
Lanzones, or Lansiumdomesticum, also known as “langsat,” a fruit
from the family Meliaceae, is popularly grown in Laguna, Camiguin, Sulu, Davao
del Norte, and Zamboangadel Norte.
Festivities have since been organized to promote lanzones
production in the country, like the Paet-Taka-Lanzones Festival in Paete,
Laguna in September.
But it is in Camiguin, an island province in Northern Mindanao,
where the lanzones is celebrated with might and main in the third week of
October with street dancing houses, street poles and people are decorated
with lanzones fruits and leaves and programs by residents garbed in
chromatic costumes.
Laguna, noted as the birthplace of Jose Rizal, is also known as a
province with abundant lanzones, as are the Mindanao provinces, which take
pride as well in the durian (Duriozibethinus) tree of the hibiscus, or mallow,
family (Malvaceae) and its fruit.
Lanzones, its delightfully sour or sweet taste feeling in the
tastebuds, is now considered as priority High Value Commercial Crops of the
Philippines.
Nutritionists say the fruit which is sold from a low of P40 to
a high of P80 per half kilo is rich in vitamin A, which helps form and
maintain healthy skin, teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, mucus membranes, and
skin.
Vitamin A, which promotes good vision, especially in low light, is
also known as retinol or carotenoids, and is a fat soluble vitamin that plays a
fundamental role in maintaining healthy skin, teeth, soft and skeletal tissue
and mucous membranes.
Apart from vitamin A, nutritionists say lanzones contains
carotene, a powerful oxidant which plays a basic role in protecting cells from
radicals associated with many medical disorders.
Lanzones was originally native to the Malaysian peninsula, with
the Malaysians calling it “langsat.”
Carotenes, especially beta carotene, occurs abundantly in nature
and is estimated that nearly more than 500 different carotenoids like
β-carotene, α-carotene, lutein, cryptoxanthins, and zea-xanthins are
distributed throughout the plant and algae world.
Although many of these have proven independent functions, around
50 or more can be metabolized to vitamin A in the human body. Β-carotene is the
most prevalent carotenoid in the plant sources of food supply and is also known
as pro-vitamin A.
Roughly, 6 µg (range varies widely 6-18 µg) of ß-carotene is equal
to 1 RE (Retinol equivalents) or 3.33 IU of vitamin-A.
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