Visiting a particular place is not complete without tasting the local, unique delicacy. If you have a chance to go to Papua and West Papua, trying something delicious is a must. You can start with the native fruit, the famous and the sweet one. I think you can already guess it. Yes, matoa fruit, the Island Lychee, the typical fruit from the land of Papua.
Botanically, matoa has the Latin name of Pometia pinnata. Its broad description is a large and tall tropical fruit tree and hardwood species. This exotic fruit is a member of the Sapindaceae family, the same with leci (lychees), lengkeng (longan), and rambutan. It seems that you can already imagine how sweet it is, right?
People call this Pometia pinnata in various names. It is buah matoa for the Indonesian people, ton or taun for the Papua New Guinea islanders, or Kasai for the Western Malaysian. More labels for this fruit are island lychee, Pacific lychee, and tava.
A Typical Fruit from Papua
Matoa trees and fruit are native to tropical areas of South Asia, Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia), and Melanesia. During prehistoric times, the Austronesian expansion brought this flora to Polynesia.
Matoa fruit is an endemic plant of Papua yet naturally widespread and found all over Indonesia, such as the islands of Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, and Borneo. When visiting or staying in Papua and West Papua, you can see these popular fruit trees almost everywhere. They can be in the wild, community’s gardens, and people’s home yards.
Matoa tree can grow to a moderate height of 40 meters, but the average tall is 8 to 20 meters. For wild matoa fruit trees, their habitats are usually lowlands with an altitude of 1000 to 1200 meters above sea level.
This endemic plant can easily adjust to cold and hot environments. They tend to grow well on dry soil and have high resistance to insects that destroy fruits. The fruit harvesting season is usually once a year, namely during the monsoon term (November – March).
The Island Lychee
Matoa fruit is highly varied in its physical appearance. You can see them in the colors of green and yellow for young fruits, and red to brown to purple for ripe ones. They are oval with approximately 5-7cm long and 3cm wide.
The outermost skin is moderately thin yet slightly hard. When you open it, the fruit meat inside is translucently white similar to mangosteen, lychee, or longan. The texture is soft and giving a fragrant aroma and flavor of longan. Each fruit contains one seed of about a diameter of 1 to 1.5 cm.
A family with lychee, longan, and rambutan, matoa is just similarly sweet. There is a slightly sour taste in the sweetness of a rambutan. But for matoa, you can find any trace of sourness. It mostly resembles a lengkeng. The difference is that lengkeng has a chewier texture, while matoa is a tenderer.
In Papua and West Papua, there are two popular types of matoa fruits, namely the coconut matoa (matoa kelapa) and papeda matoa (matoa papeda).
- Coconut matoa has a bigger size, mostly in diameter of 2 to 3.5cm. The fruit flesh is thicker, drier, and chewier similar to Aceh’s rambutan.
- Papeda matoa is about 1.5 to 2cm in diameter. It has softer and thinner fruit meat with a somewhat syrupy and sticky texture.
You can enjoy this fruit fresh, add it to beverages, preserve it in syrup, or other appetizingly creations.
The Sweet Benefits
In its origin place, matoa fruit is not only famous for edible delicacy with a deliciously sweet taste. It is also highly nutritious. The local people even use this fruit as traditional medicine. The following are some of its health benefits.
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It strengthens the body immune system.
There is a saying, “A bowl of matoa a day keeps the sickness away”. It is due to the traces of mineral and vitamin contents in this little sweet fruit.
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It reduces the high blood pressure level.
Matoa contains diuresis, which is helpful to maintain our blood pressure level and remove the particular amount of body fluid, hence reducing the high blood pressure.
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It relieves stress
Some of the compounds in this delightful fruit serve as natural sedatives that induce us to a calmer or more relaxed state.
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It wards off chronic illnesses.
Tannis in this fruit function as an antioxidant agent hence antidotes to harmful free radicals tending to attack and damage body cells that cause chronic diseases like strokes or diabetes.
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It promotes healthy skin.
Highly rich in vitamin C and E, matoa provides an antioxidant agent truly helpful for maintaining our skin health. It also has the anti-microbial that combats the ance-causing bacteria.
Looking at the above benefits, it seems that you do not need to bother buying chemically harsh medicines or cosmetics. You can reap the surprisingly healthy sweetness from this enjoyable fruit.
Native to Papua and West Papua, it is interesting that people (especially from the Java Island) call this superior variety of tropical fruit “Lengkeng Papua”. It means the only matoa fruit originating from the land of Papua.
