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'Nangkadak': Best of two fruits
JP/Theresia Sufa Mekarsari Tourism Park Bogor launched a new fruit variety Thursday called nangkadak, a cross pollination between nangka (jackfruit) and cempedak (closely related to the jackfruit)
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JP/Theresia Sufa
Mekarsari Tourism Park Bogor launched a new fruit variety Thursday called nangkadak, a cross pollination between nangka (jackfruit) and cempedak (closely related to the jackfruit).
In the photo: Irwan Hidayat (from left), director of traditional herbal beverages company PT Sido Muncul; Moh. Reza Tirtawinata, the head of the special project development division at the park; Roedhy Poerwanto, committee head of a tropical fruit symposium held in Bogor earlier; and Hari Tanjung, the park's general manager, hold a nangkadak.
The new variety has been certified by the Agriculture Ministry.
Tirtawinata said the nangkadak is a new species produced by cross pollination between a female jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) from Riau and a male cempedak (Artocarpus integer Merr) from Leuwiliang, Bogor.
Research for the new variety started in 2000, but it was not until 2005 that the first nangkadak fruit was harvested. The launch, however, was postponed until certification from the ministry.
"We cross pollinated a jackfruit and a cempedak because we wanted to get a mixture of the two fruits' good characteristics. As a result, nangkadak has an attractive color, and the flesh of the fruit is soft and thick with almost no fiber," Reza said.
"The flesh is also less sappy and less sticky than a jackfruit," Reza said.
He said a nangkadak tree is highly productive, with 30-50 fruits produced each harvest season.
Mekarsari's scientists and experts hope that within the next five years the new breed will bear more of a jackfruit characteristic with a crunchier taste, while being easy to peel like a cempedak.
Nangkadak trees take 1.5 years to bear fruits. Jackfruit trees usually need up to four or five years. Nangkadak's leaves are also useful for feeding animals, and its trunk can be used as firewood.
Mekarsari has started selling seedlings for the new species at its Garden Center at Rp 150,000 (US$ 13.6) per tree.
