Talisay Nut
Some decades ago, most children of Sagay, Camiguin loved the talisay nut. I was one of those nuts, I was crazy about this specific nut! After school, I found time to go to the beach where talisay nuts would be lying all over, sun -dried and ready. One has only to crack them open!
The weekend was also not complete without talisay nuts. Since many children living along the coast took a sea dip on Saturdays, eating or rather cracking talisay nuts was one prefered pastime.
The lazy way to crack the nut open was simply to crash it with a stone on top of another one, careful not to crush the nut itself. Most attempts usually failed; and the more one did it, the more addicted and obsessive one became. and when you ran out of luck, a finger would be caught in between those stones.
A better way open the nut was to take a small handy bolo or use a rather large knife, sharp enough to cut the nutshell approximately in the middle. And one better be careful with those small fingers.
Being the eldest, thus presumably stronger and faster, I gathered more talisay nuts than my younger sisters to their dismay. The younger kids did not fail to complain to Mama; I had to share then then nuts with them. But the other way around was not always valid, so my siblings got a scolding in return when it was my turn to seek justice.
More often than not, our mother would teach us a moral lesson which she would tirelessly repeat every time one of us complained about the talisay nut. Back then she sounded like a broken record!
“No matter how little the food is, it has to be shared. The talisay nut can be tiny but it can be shared, just cut it into equal pieces! ”
We were supposed to share what we have with each other because we were sisters!
The Talisay nut has come to symbolize “sharing” for me – all these years. Each time when I feel greed creeping it, Mom’s talisay lesson bugs me, I am reminded and the child in me listens to her.
When I went to Sagay in 2006, I looked for the Talisay tree. I was no longer sure which one was it or where it stood! The place has changed, sea walls were built, more houses were built along the coast, the parallel once-pathways are now concretized. There was a look-alike tree and I designated it as the Talisay Tree, the sharing symbol.
The curiosity of mine led me to search information about Talisay! I have learned of its medicinal value. Here is one link that I will keep and share: www.stuartxchange.com/Talisay.htm
BotanyA large, deciduous tree, reaching a height of 20-25 meters. The branches are horizontally whorled. Leaves are shiny, obobate, 10-25 cm long, tapering to a narrow and heart-shaped base with a expanded rounded apex. Leaf stalks are short and stout. Flowers are white, small, and borne on 6- 18 cm long spikes in the axils of leaves. Fruit is smooth and ellipsoid, 3-6 cm long, and prominently bi-ridged to the sides. Pericarp is fibrous and fleshy, the endocarp hard.
DistributionFound throughout the Philippines along seashores. A common inland tree preferred for its umbrella-type shade.
Constituents and characteristicsSeed contains 51.2 percent fixed oil, Catappa oil, with 54% olein, pamitin, and 46 % stearin.Bark contains tannin.Leaves are sudorific, antihelminthic.Bark and roots are astringent.
Uses Nutriton Kernels are edible, with a sweet-acidic pericarp.FolkloricRed leaves are used to expel worms.Fruit is said to be purgative.Leaves mixed with oil are rubbed onto the breast to relieve mammary pain.Bark is used for gastric ailments, bilious diarrhea and dysentery.The sap of young leaves mixed with the kernel oil has been used for the treatment of leprosy.
Bark decoction has been used for the treatment of gonorrhea and stomach cramps.Leaves are applied to rheumatic joints.Juice of young leaves used for scabies and other cutaneous diseases, headaches and colic.Leaves macerated in oil has been used for tonsilitis.