Spondias mombin is a small deciduous tree up to high and in girth, and is moderately buttressed. Its bark is thick, corky, and deeply fissured. When slashed, it is pale pink, darkening rapidly. Branches are low and branchlets are glabrous. The leaves are pinnate, with 5-8 leaflets opposite pairs with a terminal leaflet,, oblong or oblong lanceolate, broadly acuminate, glabrous. The flowers bloom January to May and are sweet-scented, in large, lax terminal panicles of small white flowers. Fruits appear July to September and are nearly long, ovoid yellow, acid, wrinkled when dry. The fruits have a sharp, somewhat acid taste and are edible. Their flesh surrounds a single spiny kernel.
Use as food
The fruit pulp is either eaten fresh or made into juice, concentrate, jellies, and sherbets. In Thailand this fruit is called makok and is used in som tam as a secondary ingredient. The young leaves, which taste slightly bitter and sour, are sometimes served raw together with certain types of nam phrik. It is also served with chili powder in Bangladesh where the fruit is known as আমড়া. In Assamese it is called omora. As a member of the sumac family, exposure to the sap of this species may result in an identical allergic reaction to that of the poison ivy plant. Those with a known sensitivity to urushiol should exercise caution in consuming or handling this species.
Traditional medicine
In traditional medicine, Spondias mombin has had a variety of uses. The fruit has been used as a diuretic and febrifuge. The bark is astringent and used as an emetic and for diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoids, gonorrhoea, and leukorrhea. The flowers and leaves are used to make a tea for stomach ache, biliousness, urethritis, cystitis, and inflammation.
Language
Spondias mombin has several common names. Throughout the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, except Cuba where they are called Ciruelas, in Costa Rica and in Mexico it is called jobo. In El Salvador, it is called Jocote de Corona. Among the English-speaking Caribbean islands it is known as yellow mombin or hog plum. In Jamaica it is also called Spanish plum, gully plum or coolie plum. In Surinam the fruit is called Mope. In Brazil, the fruit is known by several different names, such as cajá, taperebá and ambaló. In Peru, it is known as uvos or mango ciruelo. In Ghana, it is hog plum or Ashanti plum. It is called "Akukor" in the Ewe language of Ghana. In Bengali, it is called আমড়া. In the southern Indian state of Kerala it is called Ambazhanga അമ്പഴങ്ങ. In Nigeria, the fruit is called Iyeye or Yeye in the Yoruba language, ngulungwu in Igbo and isada in Hausa. Other common names include hug plum, true yellow mombin, golden apple or Java plum, Ambaralla in Sri Lanka. In Somalia, it is called Isbaandes. In Panama it is called jobo. In "habla congo" of palo mayombe in Cuba, it is called ''nkunia guenguere kunansieto', ciruela. In Palauan, it is called titimel.
