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Tiew
Kao
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Other local names are Koui Soeng( Kan Cahnaburi), Taew(South), Pak Tao (Loei province), Tiew Som(Nakorn Ratchasima). | |
| Tiew Kao, family GUTTIFERAE, categorized as trees, are in various type such as Tiew Khon(hairy Tiew), Tiew Dum(black Tiew), but most favourite type is Tiew Kao (White Tiew) because its young tips, taste slightly sour and astringent, is favored for dipping with chili and other local food for Thais, for example, Jaew, Bamboo shoot soup, meat salad and grass noodle in coconut cream. Tiew's young tips can also be used to cook sour curry. People in the northeast like this plant very much. Tiew's flowers are added in vegetable curry. Tiew is nutritious, plenty of vitamins and mineral salts. Tiew Kao is rich of Beta-Carotene substances, which is essential for all human's memory because this substance can be transformed to vitamin A. Especially children who hugely need adequate vitamin A for their regular growth and resistance to diseases such as Chicken-eye symptom and night-blinded symptom. | ||
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General characteristic:
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Small to medium size trees. Leaves shed and simultaneously bud as flowers. Trunk is thorny, bushy branches, tough fiber, white periderm, and brownish-yellow core with sticky juice often percolated. Trees' heights are 8-15 m. Leaves are tapering with pointed tip, oppositely arranged, smooth edge. Glands generally scattered on the bottom part of leaves. Bases and ends are tapered. Leaf's top is glossy and darker colored than leaf's bottom. There are 6-8 pairs of veins, which are curvy and converged to edges. Old leaves are orange or red. |
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| Flowers are pink or white, perfect, axillary, solitary or fasciculate. There are 5 calyx and 5 petals. Oval petals contain numerous stamens, gathered into 3-5 groups. Fruits are drupaceous, bobbin shape, brown or blackish brown, with white film on skin. Skin cracks into 3 pieces when the fruit is ripe so that seeds, with curvy wings and compressed inside, can be seen. Fruit stem is 1 cm long, hairy, and generally scattered. Propagated by cultivating seeds and preserved stems. Tiew Kao is quickly grown in all types of soil and it is medium drought resistant. Tiew Kao can be generally found in grove or timber forest in the north, northeast, and top part of the south, where are 200-1000 meters above sea level.
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19 Jan2001
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Translation Service Khanob Thai Co.,Ltd. Thai/English/ Japanese/Chinese www.khanobthai.com |