CSIR-NEERI Biodiversity Portal

CUSTARD APPLE / SITAPHAL

Annona squamosal L.

Botanical name	: Annona squamosa L.
Synonym	: Annona asiatica L.
Vernacular name	: Suger-apple / Custard apple / Sitaphal
Family	: Annonaceae
About the Tree	: Annona squamosa is a small, semi-(or late) deciduous, much branched shrub or small tree with a broad, open crown or irregularly spreading branches and a short trunk short, not buttressed at base. The fruit has delicious whitish pulp, and is popular in tropical markets. It is indigenous to Amazon forests but now distributed in tropics and sub-tropics. It is now distributed in India.
Height	: Grows up to 3 to 8 meters.
Bark	: Light brown in colour with visible leaf scars. Smoothish to slightly fissure into plates.
Leaf	: The leaves are thin single, alternate in arrangement, oblong, blunt tipped, 2 to 6 in (5-15 cm) long and 3/4 to 2 in (2-5 cm) wide, dull-green on the upper side, pale, with a bloom. Below, slightly hairy when young, aromatic when crushed.
Flower	: Flowers emerge on slender branches singly or in groups of 2-4 , oblong in shape 1 to 1 1/2 in long, with 1 in long, drooping stalks never fully open. Sepals are hairy and pointed. There are three outer petals, which are fleshy, yellow-green on the outside and pale-yellow inside with a purple or dark-red at the base and there are three inner petals, which look like minute scales or are absent
Fruits	: The aggregate fruit formed from the numerous pistils of a flower, which are loosely united, is soft and distinct from other species of the genus. The ovoid or conical fruit, 5-10 cm in diameter, with many round protuberances, knobby skin, greenish-yellow, with a white, powdery bloom, the pulp is white, edible and sweetly aromatic. In each carpel is embedded a seed, oblong, shiny and smooth, blackish or dark brown, 1.3-1.6 cm long, numerous up to 40 .These seeds are poisonous.
Season	: In India, the leaves fall in January-February and are renewed in April-May when the flowers appear, and fruiting is in July-Aug
Medicinal Properties Peculiar Character	: In tropical America, a decoction of the leaves is used as a cold remedy and to clarify urine. A bark decoction is used to stop diarrhea, while the root is used in the treatment of dysentery. : The fruit has a knobby skin.