Supplier From
Bothell,
Washington,
United States
Supplier From
Bothell,
Washington,
United States
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF JAMUN PRODUCTION, CLUSTERS, POST-HARVEST MANAGEMENT AND VALUE ADDITION IN INDIA
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The jamun is an important indigenous minor fruit of commercial
value. It is also known as black plum, Indian black cherry, Ram
jamun etc. in different parts of India. The tree is tall and handsome, evergreen, generally grown for shade and windbreak on roads and avenues. Syzygium cumini belongs to family Myrtaceae and is also known as Syzygium jabunum is evergreen tropical and subtropical plant native to Indian subcontinent. It is commonly known as Jambul, Black Plum, Java Plum, Indian Blackberry, Jamblang, Jamun etc. The tree fruits once in a year and berries are purple during early stage, later they become black and taste bitter sweet. Being a tropical and subtropical plant but it also performs very well in lower ranges of Himalaya s upto an altitude of 1300 meter from mean sea level. It is distributed througssssssshout India, Sri Lanka, Malaya, and Australia. Annually the trees produce oblong or ellipsoid fruits (berries). They are green when raw and purplish black when fully ripe. The ripe fruits are sweetish sour to taste.
It is commonly known as naaval in Tamil and Black plum, Indian black berry, Java Plum in English. Leaves are opposite, simple, entire and elliptic to broadly oblong. Flowers are white, 7.5-13 mm across, in branched clusters at stem tips. Fruits are variable in size, up to 2.5 cm long, ellipsoid or oblong, black with juicy pulp. It is an animal dispersed species. It is found throughout India, from sea level to an altitude of 1,800m, usually along streams and often gregarious in Sal (Shorea robusta) and evergreen forests.
India is the second largest producer of the fruit in the world. World production of Jamun is estimated at 13.5 million tonnes out of which 15.4% is contributed by India. India ranks second in production of Jamun in the world. Maharashtra State is the largest Jamun producer followed by Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam and others. The mainly Konkan bahadoli variety are famous. This variety cultivated especially in Konkan region.
1.2 ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION AND PRODUCTION OF JAMUN
The original home of jamun is India or the East Indies. It is also found in Thailand, Philippines, Madagascar and some other countries. The jamun has successfully been introduced into many other subtropical regions including Florida, California, Algeria, Israel, etc.
In India, the maximum number of jamun trees are found scattered throughout the tropical and subtropical regions. It also occurs in the lower range of the Himalayas up to an elevation of 1,300 meters and in the Kumaon hills up to 1,600 meters. It is widely grown in the larger parts of India from the Indo-Gangetic plains in the North to Tamil Nadu in the South.
