Kamansi

Kamansi also known as breadnut  (bot. name- Artocarpus camansi – blanco) is a relative of breadfruit and jack fruit.  The breadfruit has more pulp and small seeds while the kamansi has bigger seeds and less pulp and  just like the  jack fruit, the seeds are edible and can be boiled or roasted and a good source of protein.

The tree can grow up to 15 ft. just like the cousins jack fruit and breadfruit.  The leaves are not as indented though as the breadfruit. The breadfruit leaf  in Hawaii is used as a pattern for quilt-making.

It is native to the Philippines and New Guinea and maybe Indonesia.  It grows widely in tropical areas and coastal regions.

Kamansi is a fruit but we use and eat it as a vegetable.  By removing the hard skin, we dice the meat or flesh of the kamansi and cook it in coconut milk just like making the famous “laing”, which is taro leaves cooked in coconut milk as well with lots of siling labuyo (hot chili peppers) as a spice.  Seeds are also edible.  The leaves are used in folk medicine and can be used as tea as a treatment for diabetes.

The wood of the kamansi tree is lightweight and can be carved as bowls, statues and other folk arts.  It is also used as firewood for cooking.

In the wild, the fruit of the kamansi is the food of flying foxes and other arboreal mammals like monkeys and fruit bats.