Jambul

Jambul or Jamun or Jamblang (Syzgium cumini) is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, native to India, Pakistan and Indonesia. It is also grown in other areas of southern and southeastern Asia including the Philippines, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. The tree was also introduced to Florida, USA in 1911 by the USDA, and is also now commonly planted in Suriname. In Brazil, where it was introduced from India during Portuguese colonization, it has dispersed spontaneously in the wild in some places, as its fruits are eagerly sought by various native birds such as thrushes, tanagers and the Great Kiskadee. The various names for this fruit are (in Java) plum, jambul, jamun, jaman, black plum, faux pistachier, Indian blackberry, jambol, doowet, jambolan, jambolão, naval pazham(Tamil), njaval pazham(Malayalam), duhat (Tagalog), lomboi (Visayan), and pring (Khmer). Scientific synonyms include Syzygium jambolanum, Eugenia cumini and Eugenia jambolana.   A fairly fast growing species, it can reach heights of up to 30 m and can live more than 100 years. Its dense foliage provides shade and is grown just for its ornamental value. The wood is strong and is water resistant. Because of this it is used in railway sleepers and to install motors in wells. It is sometimes used to make cheap furniture and village dwellings though it is relatively hard to work on.

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Jamun trees start flowering from March to April. The flowers of Jamun are fragrant and small, about 5 mm in diameter. The fruits develop by May or June and resemble large berries. The fruit is oblong, ovoid, starts green and turns pink to shining crimson black as it matures. A variant of the tree produces white coloured fruit. The fruit has a combination of sweet, mildly sour and astringent flavour and tends to colour the tongue purple. The seed is also used in various alternative healing systems like Ayurveda (to control diabetes, for example^[1].), Unani and Chinese medicine for digestive ailments. The leaves and bark are used for controlling blood pressure and gingivitis. Wine and vinegar are also made from the fruit. It has a high source in vitamin A and vitamin C.

Observation

Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Results of a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, controlled trial Claudio Coimbra Teixeira, MD1, Letícia Schwerz Weinert1, Daniel Cardoso Barbosa1, Cristina Ricken1, Jorge Freitas Esteves, MD2 and Flávio Danni Fuchs, MD, PHD3^[2]

1 Departamento de Farmacologia, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil 2 Departamento de Oftalmologia e Otorrinolaringologia, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil 3 Departamento de Medicina Interna, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Address correspondence to Claudio C. Teixeira, MD, Departamento de Farmacologia, ICBS, UFRGS, Rua Sarmento Leite, 550, CEP 90046-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. E-mail: clauct@vortex.ufrgs.br

Tea, extracts, solutions, and other preparations from plants with a putative antihyperglycemic effect have a worldwide utilization in the treatment of diabetes^[3]. Among them, the tea prepared from leaves of jambolan [Syzygium jambos (L.) Alst or Syzyguium cumini (L.) Skeels] is largely used in our city ^[4] and elsewhere^[5]. We demonstrated that the tea and extracts from different parts of the plant had no effect in normal rats^[6], rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes^[7], and normal volunteers^[8]. An antihyperglycemic effect in patients with diabetes, however, could not be ruled out, since its mechanism of action could depend on specific abnormalities of diabetes in humans.

In this double-blind, double-dummy clinical trial, we randomized patients with type 2 diabetes to receive a tea prepared from leaves of Syzygium cumini (two grams per liter of water, taken as water substitute) plus placebo tablets, placebo tea (prepared with dried leaves of Imperata braziliensis Trinius) plus glyburide tablets (5 mg twice a day), or placebo tea plus placebo tablets.

Fasting blood glucose levels decreased significantly in participants treated with glyburide and did not change in those treated with the Syzygium cumini tea and in the participants who received placebos from tea and glyburide (Table 1). BMI, creatinine, {gamma}-glutamyl transferase, alkaline phosfatase, SGOT, SGPT, 24-h glicosuria, 24-h proteinuria, triglycerides, and total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol did not vary significantly among the groups.

With this clinical trial, we have completed a cycle of experiments showing that the tea and extracts prepared from leaves of Syzygium cumini are pharmacologically inert. Patients and physicians should not rely on the putative antihyperglycemic effect of this tea, and perhaps of other folk medicines, that pretend to have such an effect. The investigation of plants with potential clinical utility could start with a clinical trial testing the effect of folk preparations in order to isolate the active principles of those products that show pharmacological activity in this model.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by grants from CNPq and FAPERGS, Brazil.

References

See also

• List of fruits