What Is That????

Sometimes when I come in late to work, or come back to work from some activity, people like to run up on me.

I mean, it's weird walking up on a crowd of folks, and everyone's looking at me.

"There's LadyLee. Come here, LadyLee, we have to show you something..."

This particular day, my fellow Docs (Dr. Sunshine and Dr. Hazel Eyes) and myself had made a run over to Spel.man College to have lunch and conversate with some young ladies, rising seniors, who were interested in careers in science. I balked at the idea at first, as I didn't feel like going anywhere giving no complicated chemistry talk. But this was just a little free lunch and question and answer session. And a chance to get away from the lab AND still be on the clock, lol.

It was a nice sunny day. "Dr. Sunshine" even let me drive her sleek Navigator. (This was not a good thing, as it caused me to ponder, have strange and intersting thoughts of having my own SUV. Hmm. I don't need to drive nobody's big trucks ever again!)

But I came back to the work that afternoon, and our group super-hero,Hen-Dog, said something strange:

"Lee, go put your stuff down. Let's go to the sample prep room. I want you to see something."

I peered at him curiously. I have to watch him. He might be trying to trick me or something.

"Come on, girl!"

I turned to Lady X, the youngest member of our little group, and she was staring at the two of us. "Lady X, what is he talking about?"

"Girl. . ." She shrugged and turned away.

I squinted hard at Hen-Dog. You have to watch Hen-Dog. He's just a bit. . .adventurous. (Yes, that's a good word for him.)

So we left our cubicle area, and walked down the hall back towards our labs.

We walked into the sample prep lab, and there was a large wrinkled brown paper bag sitting in the middle of the table.

"Go look in that bag," Hen-Dog said.

"No," I quickly said. I backed up towards the door, and the doorjamb hits me in the back.

"Girl, go look in the bag!"

"Hell no!" I said in my most unconvincing Miss Sophia way.

Hen proceeds to walk over to the table and shake the bag.

"Dude, that don't mean anything." I wasn't falling for no crazy trick. I had visions of whatever was in the bag jumping out and biting me.

He puts his face down in the bag. "See, there's nothing bad or anything. Come look at this."

I cautiously walk towards the bag and look inside. I shook the bag to make sure what I was looking at WAS NOT moving. I picked up one of the things and threw it on the table.

"Man, what is that????"

"It's something that came in for us to work on," he said.


"Why is it all hairy like that?"


"I don't know. It's some type of fruit."

We got a good laugh out of that. That is some strange looking ish.

I went and talked to "Lady X". I thumbed through her paperwork.

"Lady X, I know you were tripping out when you saw that."

She just shook her head, and groaned. (She spooks easily like me,lol.)

Turns out that that strange furry thing was a fruit called rambuton.

Now, being the closet phytochemist that I am, I always go look up strange stuff. As a matter of fact, my boss likes to call me and ask me about strange fruits and vegetables, and their characteristics. If I don't know, then I'll go track it down. And that's what I did with our little strange fruit here, the rambuton.

It's actually a popular fruit over in Southeast Asia, one of the most popular actually, and it is widely cultivated in many countries. It is also one of the top tropical fruits produced in Hawaii.
Yeah, that's all good, that it's popular and all that. But uh, I don't see myself craving those. Can you imagine saying:

"Mama, you going to the store? Bring me back some rambutans!"

Uh, no. But they are used in various food products, like jams and jellies.

"Mama! Bring me back some rambutan jelly!"

N'awl. That don't sound right either.

But I have a love of the phytochemistry and the health benefits of strange fruits and vegetables. I couldn't find much on the chemisty of it, which means it's not well studied. But I do have a few little fun facts for you.

Now, this is one fruit where many parts of the fruit tree are useful. A tea made from the roots of the tree is helpful for getting rid of fevers. You can also grind up the leaves and use those as a poultice. The bark of the tree is useful as an astringent for problems of the tongue. And the actual fruit is good for helping with digestion problems. It is also good for dialrrhea problems.

Whoever thought something so furry could be so useful? No wonder it's so popular in other countries.

Like I said, I couldn't find much chemistry on it (which makes it HIGHLY interesting to me). But I found out that this fruit has a seed in the middle. How did I find that out?

From our super hero, Hen-Dog.

"I tried one, Lee," he said.

"What it taste like?"

"Taste like a grape. And it has a big seed in the middle."

That doggone Hen-Dog will test out ANYTHING. He's not afraid of anything (This is why he's our super-hero.) One day, I brought in a drink I found made from rose petals and he was bold enough to take a sip... Dude will do anything!

Ahhhh... That seed, 'tis interesting. It contains a large amount of tallow, which is a type of fat used to make candles, soap, lubricants, all kinds of stuff like that. The testa of the seed (the hard outer coating) contains toxic chemicals.

Hmm... I don't think I will fool with that. How many times have you eaten fruit and swallowed some seed?

I'm sure that it's not enough toxicity in that seed to take me out, but uh, why don't I stick to my trusty apples and oranges...

I've seen these at my local farmer's market recently, over on the exotic fruits aisle. Didn't see all the shoppers crowding around them, though.

Yep. I think I'll stick to my trusty apples and oranges.

lol!

(But it is an interesting looking thing, isn't it?)