The pomelo ( ;
Description
The pomelo tree can be tall, with a trunk, often rather crooked, that is thick, and low-hanging, irregular branches. The petioles (leaf stalks) are distinctly winged. The leaves are alternate, ovate or elliptic in shape, and long; they are leathery and dull green above, hairy beneath. The flowers – single or in clusters – are fragrant and yellow-white in color.
The fruit is large, in diameter, round or somewhat pear-shaped.
The pomelo has at least sixty cultivars.
The pomelo is native to Southeast Asia and all of Malaysia.
File:Pomelo seedling.jpg|Seedling
File:Pomelo flower.jpg|Flowers
File:Bưởi.jpg|Tree
File:Citrus grandis - Honey White.jpg|Fruit
History
Ancestral Citrus species
The pomelo is significant botanically as one of the three major wild ancestors of several cultivated hybrid
Citrus species, including the
bitter orange and the
grapefruit; and less directly also of the
lemon, the sweet orange, and some types of
mandarin orange.
[ and Supplement]
The bitter orange is a naturally occurring hybrid between the pomelo and the
Mandarin orange.
The grapefruit is a hybrid between a pomelo and a sweet orange,
which is why 63% of the grapefruit's genome comes from the pomelo.
The bitter orange is a hybrid of wild type mandarin and pomelo; in turn, the lemon is a hybrid of bitter orange and
citron, i.e. cultivated lemons have some pomelo ancestry.
In addition, there has been repeated introgression of pomelo genes into both early cultivated hybrid mandarins and later mandarin varieties, these last also involving hybridization with the sweet orange. Pomelo genes are thus included in many types of cultivated
Citrus.
Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of the word 'pomelo' is uncertain.
It may be derived from Dutch pompelmoes.
The Dutch name in turn has uncertain etymology, but is possibly derived from Dutch pompel 'swollen' or pompoen 'pumpkin', combined with limoes 'lemon, citrus fruit', influenced by Portuguese limões with the same meaning.
An alternative possibility is that the Dutch name derives from Portuguese pomos limões 'citrus fruit'.
The specific name
maxima is the female form of the Latin for 'biggest'.
One theory for the alternative English name 'shaddock' is that it was adopted after the plant's introduction into Barbados by a 'Captain Shaddock' of the East India Company (apparently Philip Chaddock, who visited the island in the late 1640s).[American Heritage Dictionary, 1973.]
Taxonomy
In his
Herbarium Amboinense, published posthumously in 1741, Georg Eberhard Rumphius named it
Limo decumanus.
In 1753,
Carl Linnaeus mentioned the plant as a subspecies,
Citrus aurantium var grandis.
In 1755,
Johannes Burman validly described the species from the
type specimen, giving it the name
Aurantium maximum, now considered a
basionym.
In 1757,
Pehr Osbeck named it
Citrus grandis.
Linnaeus revisited the taxonomy in 1767, renaming the species as
Citrus decumana.
In 1917, Elmer Drew Merrill revised and renamed it
Citrus maxima.
remains as a subfamily.
As food
Nutrition
Raw pomelo flesh is 89% water, 10%
, 1% protein, and contains negligible
fat. A 100-gram reference amount provides of
food energy, and is rich in
vitamin C (68% of the
Daily Value), with no other
in significant content (table).
Culinary
The flesh and juice are edible, and the peel may be candied.
It is eaten as a dessert, or used in salads.
In the Philippines, a pink beverage is made from pomelo and
pineapple juice.
In East Asia, especially in Cantonese cuisine, braised pomelo pith is used to make dishes that are high in fibre and low in fat.
File:Pomelos for sale, Tapah.jpg|Ipoh pomelos on sale in Malaysia
File:Tam som-o nam pu.JPG| Tam som-o nam pu: spicy Thai pomelo salad with crab extract
Drug interactions
The pomelo, while not itself toxic, can cause adverse interactions similar to those caused by the grapefruit with a wide range of prescription drugs. These occur by the inhibition of cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of prescription drugs including for example some anti-hypertensives, some
, some anticancer agents, some anti-infective agents, some
, and some immunosuppressants.
Cultivation
The seeds of the pomelo are
monoembryonic, producing seedlings with genes from both parents, so they do not breed true to type.
However, they are usually fairly similar to the tree they grow from and therefore in Asia, pomelos are typically grown from seed.
Seeds can be stored for 80 days at a temperature of with moderate relative humidity.
Pomelos can be propagated vegetatively by
air-layering, by taking cuttings, by
grafting, by
shield budding, or by
tissue culture.
File:Xiancun - pomelo orchards - DSCF4064.JPG|Pomelos in Pinghe County, Fujian
File:Vườn bưởi.jpg|Orchard in Vietnam
In culture
The pomelo is used in cultural and spiritual festivals across Asia. In China, during the Lunar New Year festival, the fruit is offered to ancestors. Its name is similar to the word for "to have" (有, yǒu), making it a symbol of prosperity and family unity.
In Thailand, pomelo is used in rituals such as the Songkran festival.
In the Hindu festival of
Chhath Puja, pomelo is used as an offering.
File:Chhat Puja with Pomelo.jpg|Chhat Puja with pomelo, India
