Cermai, ceremai, cereme or cerme is the name of a tree with its fruit once. This sour fruit is also known by other names such as ceureumoe (Aceh), chermai (Mal.), Karmay (Ilokano, Fil.), Mayom (Thai.) And others. In English it is called Otaheite gooseberry, Malay gooseberry and some other names. Its scientific name is Phyllanthus acidus.

Pemerian

Fruit on the tree

Shrub or small tree with a height of up to 9 m, branching low and tenuous. At a glance, the mirror tree is not unlike the starfruit tree wuluh.

Single leaf, rounded egg with pointed tip, 2-7 cm long, arranged in twigs like pinnate compound leaf.

Fruit

The flowers are single or double, red, 4, arranged in panicles up to 12 cm. Fruit stone, round with 6-8 ribs, whitish yellow resembles a candle, diameter up to 2.5 cm, hanging alone or in a string. Flesh whitish, sour and watery, in the middle there is a hard core with 4-6 grains of seed.

Benefits

Trees are mirrored with the fruit.
Fruits are often eaten freshly mixed with sugar, salt or dirujak. Cerme is also often made sweets, boiled (set up) or made a refreshing drink. The young leaves are used as a salad.

Decoction of the root of the mirror is used to relieve asthma and treat skin diseases. Tanners are also produced from the root bark.

Mirror trees are often planted as a shade or decorate the yard and garden. This tree can grow in the tropics and subtropics, like a damp place to a height of about 1,000 m above sea level. Cerme can be cultured by seed or cuttings.

Spreading

Cerme is thought to have origins from Madagascar. Now the mirrors have spread to various tropical regions such as Southeast Asia (southern Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and northern Malaya), the Mauritius islands, Réunion and Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, as well as in Guam, Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1793, this plant was brought to Jamaica from Timor; and has since spread widely throughout the Caribbean islands, followed later by its entry into Central and South America.

Relative type

Cerme are closely related to malacca trees (Phyllanthus emblica) and meniran (P. niruri); both are medicinal plants