Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)

Jack, jackfruit, jak [English], bo luo mi, jacquier [French], jackfruchtbaum [German], nangka, nongko [Indonesian], kathal, jaqueira, jaqueiro [Portuguese], árbol del pan, arbol de yaca, jaca, jacueiro, nanca, nanjea, panapén, pan de fruta, buen pan, rima, jaca [Spanish]; mfenesi,mfenesi mfuu [Swahili]; جاكية[Arabic]; نان صحرایی [Farsi]; פרי-הג'ק [Hebrew]; ફણસ [Gujarati]; कटहल [Hindi]; Джекфрут [Russian]; 波羅蜜 [Chinese]; パラミツ [Japanese]; 잭프루트 [Korean]; Mít [Vietnamese]

Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. [Moraceae]

Artocarpus integrifolius L.f.

The jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) is a tropical to subtropical, multipurpose tree mainly grown for its edible, energy- and protein-rich fruits. Its leaves, culled fruits, and fruit peelings are valuable for livestock feeding. It is a major fruit tree in some Asian countries and it is widely spread around the world.

Morphology

Artocarpus heterophyllus is an evergreen tree reaching 8-25 m high. It is deeply taprooted. It has a dense, dome shaped, rarely pyramidal crown whose diameter can be up to 6 m within 5 years. The trunk is straight, rarely buttressed, with a circumference of 50-100 cm. The bark is rough, somewhat scaly, greyish-brown in colour, The stems are straight, forming a 30° angle with the trunk. Branches, twigs and foliage are glabrous; when injured they exudate an abundant gummy latex. The leaves are alternate, simple, pinnately veined, coriaceous, glossy, 4-25 cm long x 2-12 cm, dark green on the upper side and pale green beneath. The leaf shape is very versatile and depends on the situation on the tree and on the stage of maturity. The jackfruit tree is monoecious: inflorescences are solitary, axillary borne on special lateral, short, stout flowering shoots emerging from older branches and main trunk, or even from the base of the trunk in very old trees. Male flowers are barrel-shaped or ellipsoid, pedicellated, 3-8 cm long x 1-3 cm in diameter; female flowers are solitary or paired, oblong or cylindrical with rough, light to dark green skin, 5-15 cm long x 3-4.5 cm across and surrounded by a 5-8 cm long spathaceous bract (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987).

The fruit is large, pear-shaped, and cauliflorus, 20-100 cm long x 15-50 cm broad. It may weigh 4.5 kg, up to 25 (-50) kg. It grows along the trunk. It is made of 500 indehiscent fleshy, banana-flavoured achenes, each containing one waxy, oval-oblong seed. The fruit is dark green in colour when young and becomes yellow to brownish at maturity. It is covered with a thick rubbery rind and hard pyramidal spines. At full maturity, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987).

Uses

The jackfruit is a staple fruit in Asia, where it is an important source of energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. When the fruit is immature, the pulp can be used in several dishes like curries, pickles, or cooked as a vegetable. Its meat-like taste and texture is reminiscent of chicken and makes it a relished substitute of meat for vegetarians and vegans (Growables, 2020). At maturity, the pulp is eaten fresh or made into delicacies, chutney, jam, jelly and paste. It can be candied, made into ice-cream and juices/drinks. Young leaves and immature male flower clusters may be prepared as vegetables. The seeds have good nutritive value (they contain valuable amount of vitamine A, sulphur, calcium and phosphorus) and can be eaten as snacks (like peanuts), boiled (like chestnuts) or ground and blended with wheat flour to produce baking flour. Rotten male flowers can be used in salads or pickles (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987).

Several parts of the jackfruit tree are used as fodder for farm animals. In India, the leaves are lopped for ruminant fodder, while the overripe, immature or fallen fruits are fed to pigs and cattle. Jackfruit peelings may be fed to livestock (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987). Elephants eat the bark, leaves and fruits (Orwa et al., 2009).

The trunk provides a valuable and durable timber that is resistant to termites, and to fungal and bacterial decay and used for furniture, construction and musical instruments. It is reported to be superior to teak in quality. The roots are used in carving and framing. The latex contains a resin that can be used in varnishes. The latex is traditionally used as a glue to mend broken chinaware and other crafted works. The latex may be used as a substitute of rubber. The bark yields a dye that, after boiling with alum, is transformed into a deep yellow dye. This dye is used for silk and cotton robe of Buddhist priests (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987).

All parts of jackfruit tree (bark, roots, leaves, and fruits) are attributed with diverse medicinal properties and are used in the various traditional and folk systems of medicine to treat wide a range of ailments (Baliga et al., 2011). Jackfruit trees are beautiful shade trees that are planted as ornamentals in parks, gardens or along roadsides. They make useful shade trees in coffee plantations or nurse trees in pepper plantations. They can be used in agroforestry systems including annual cash crops such as banana, sweet corn and groundnut (Orwa et al., 2009).

Artocarpus heterophyllus most probably originated in the Western Ghats in India. It is also native to Malaysia and Bengladesh where it is the national fruit. The jackfruit has been cultivated for centuries and was introduced and became naturalized in many parts of the tropics, particularly in the South-Eastern Asian region. Artocarpus heterophyllus is grown at low elevations throughout Asia and South-East Asia (India, Burma, Ceylon, southern China, Malaya, and the East Indies). In South India, the jackfruit is a popular food ranking next to the mango and banana in total annual production. In the Philippines, it is both cultivated and naturalized. In Africa, it is planted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (Zanzibar). It was introduced to Brazil and Surinam. It is still rare in Hawaii and other Pacific islands (though it was introduced to Queensland, Australia), as it is in most of tropical America and the West Indies (Morton, 1987).

Jackfruit is mainly found from sea level up to 1600 m altitude in tropical, near tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres (30°N to 30° S) where annual rainfall is evenly distributed and ranges between 1000 and 2400 mm, and where average temperature is 16-22°C. While it is able to bear fruit between 30° N and 30° S, better crops are obtained around 25° N or S. The jackfruit tree does better in well-drained, deep, alluvial, sandy-loam or clay loam soils of medium fertility with a pH of 5-7.5. However, it also grows in the poorest soils, including gravelly or lateritic soils, shallow limestone, shallow light soils, and sandy or stony soils. It has moderate tolerance to salinity. Jackfruit tree does not tolerate drought or flooding (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987).

The main jackfruit producers are India (1.43 million t), Bengladesh (920 000 t), Thailand (392 000 t) Indonesia (340 000 t), and Nepal (19 000 t) (Sawe, 2017).

Artocarpus heterophyllus can be propagated by seeds or cuttings. The trees should be planted 9-12 m apart. The tree becomes producive after 5 years and is claimed to survive 100 years. However, it has been recommended to remove 20-year-old trees for optimal yield (Orwa et al., 2009; Morton, 1987)

Erosion control, shelter and shade provider

Jackfruit trees can be used to control floods and soil erosion. They act as windbreaks and as shade providers in coffee plantations or in stands where livestock can benefit from their shade (Orwa et al., 2009). Jackfruit trees have been used as shade trees for residential buildings in Thai cities and were reported to help saving substantial cooling energy in the buildings (Akamphon et al., 2014)

Fruits and fruit wastes

The composition of the fruit is extremely variable and depends on the maturity and variety. Generally, the fruit is rich in water (55-75%) and the dry matter is relatively poor in protein (<10% DM) though some studies report values higher than 20% DM. It is quite poor in fat (< 4% DM) with variable of fibre (NDF 27-42% DM). The rest of the fruit consists in starch and sugars.

Leaves

Jackfruit leaves are of moderate nutritional quality, with a protein content about 14% DM (10-19% DM) and a large range of fibre (NDF 28-51% DM) due to the variable proportion of twigs and stems included in the fodder.

Seeds

There is considerable variation in the composition reported for jackfruit seeds in the literature. They are typically low to moderate in protein (10-18% DM), and low in fibre (crude fibre < 4% DM) and fat (< 2% DM). The rest of the seed consists in starch and sugars. Data about minerals and amino acids are inconsistent between sources. One article reports a particularly high value for cystine (9 g/16g N) (Amaechi et al., 2016) but this needs to be confirmed.

Jackfruit leaves, culled fruits and fruit rinds are used as for ruminants feeding.

Digestibility

Fruits and fruit wastes

Fresh jackfruits and fruit wastes are highly palatable to ruminants (Kusmartono, 2011). They can be a good source of energy due to their valuable amount of starch and high in vitro DM digestibility (84-85%) DM (Ribeiro Pereira et al., 2007; Arun et al., 2020). They can be fed fresh or ensiled (Arun et al., 2020; Azevedo et al., 2015; Azevedo et al., 2012). However, they must be supplemented with a nitrogen source due to their low protein protein (Kusmartono, 2011).

Leaves

Jackfruit leaves can be a good source of protein but they must be supplemented with another protein source due to the presence of tannins content and to the low protein digestiblity or degradability.

The in sacco dry matter (DM) degradability of leaves is high: nearly 80% after 48 h (Keir et al., 1997a).

Protein digestibility and nitrogen retention are generally low, probably due to the high content in condensed tannins. In a trial in Vietnam, N retention values ranging from 15 to 23 % were reported with jackfruit leaves fed to lactating dairy goats at 2.7% of body weight in combination with whole sugar cane (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a). A similar level of N retention (26%) was observed when leaves (including twigs and stems) were fed alone to goats with respectively 62% of N excreted in the feces in Laos and 66 to 73% in Vietnam (Kongmanila et al., 2009; Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a).

In another Vietnamese trial with male goats (10 kg), the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG, 2.5 g/d), known to combine with tannins and reduce their negative effects, increased protein digestibility from 50.5 to 59% and DM digestibility from 45 to 55.7 %. PEG reduced fecal nitrogen loss but not the urinary loss, which may confirm that tannins are responsible of the lower N and DM digestibility (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a). While condensed tannins were not measured in Vietnam, they were measured in Laos and were high (123g/kg DM)(Kongmanila et al., 2009; Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a).

In two trials in India, jackfruit leaves with a high content in condensed tannins (54 to 153 g/kg DM) were able to reduce methane production in sheep by 17 to 22 % (Malik et al., 2017; Gangwar et al., 2018).

Sheep

Experiments using jackfruit leaves as a protein supplement in sheep diets (summarized in Table 1) have been done with growing animals, adults males or females at the end of gestation and early lactation. These trials show that jackfruit leaves can be a good source of protein and can replace some industrial by-products. Fruit silage, fresh fruit wastes or ensiled fruit wastes could be used as forage to replace straw or as an energy source in a concentrate. However, a source of nitrogen (urea) had to be added for balancing the diets. When fruit silage replaced maize meal as an energy source, in a concentrate, the level had to be limited to 33% for similar growth performance. Beyond this level, animal growth decreased.

Table 1. Use of jackfruit leaves and fruits in sheep diets

JKL= Jackfruit leaves; MUB= molasses urea block; DMI = dry matter intake; DMD = dry matter digestibility; DWG= daily weight gain; BW= body weight; Jackfruit waste (aerial part, skin, seed and heart)

Goats

Experiments using jackfruit leaves as a protein supplement in goat diets are summarized in Table 2. Jackfruit leaves can be a good protein supplement for medium quality forage fed to goats (Reddy et al., 2009). However, they could not totally replace (at the same protein level) soybean meal in a diet based on whole sugarcane (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a). Their DM digestibility and protein digestibility were lower : respectively -7 to -10 points for DM and -26 to -29 points for protein (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a). When PEG was added to the diet, both DM and protein digestibilities increased (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a).

Dairy goats

In early to mid-lactation, dairy goats could be supplemented with jackfruit leaves if adequate amount of energy (molasses, sugarcane juice) was added. However, jackfruit leaves could not replace more than 20% of the concentrate (24 % protein) in the diet if the protein level of the diet was not maintained at the same level (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a).

Growing goats

Jackfruit leaves fed to goat kids (15 kg BW) alone (about 10% CP), had 51% DM digestibility and only 26% N digestibility, probably because of their low energy and to a lesser extent, to their low protein content (Kongmanila et al., 2009). Jackfruit leaves could be fed as protein source to growing kids fed with various low quality forages without (Ngo Hong Chin et al., 2012; Trinh Xuan Thanh et al., 2013; Setyono et al., 2019) or with other supplements as energy and/or protein source (Keir et al., 1997b; Islam et al., 1997; Nguyen Kim Lin et al., 2003). Leaves were always well consumed by the animals and the diets allowed a daily weight gain (DWG) of 30 to 84 g/d. Animal performance depended on the quality of the diet and on the level of the other supplements or the amount of jackfruit leaves (Table 2).

Compared to other tree leaves, jackfruit leaves were consumed in a greater extent and supported one of the highest daily weight gain (44 vs. -4 to 33 g/d). It was concluded that jackfruit leaves could replace up to 25 or 50% of concentrate in pasture or forage based rations (Das et al. 2007; Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2001).

Table 2. Use of jackfruit leaves in goat diets

JKL= Jackfruit leaves; MUB= molasses urea block; CP = crude proteins; DMI = dry matter intake; DMD = dry matter digestibility; DWG= daily weight gain; BW= body weight

Steers

Only one reference could be found on the utilization of jackfruit in cattle. In Indonesia, ongole steers (137 kg BW) could be fed with rice straw plus jackfruit wastes (aerial part, skin, seed and heart) without or with urea brought in different forms. DM intake of rice straw decreased with urea from 1.64 to 1.47 – 1.34 kg/d and the DM intake of jackfruit wastes decreased from 1.45 to 1.29 kg/d only when urea was added to jackfruit wastes. Conversely, the DM digestibility of the diet increased when urea was added, whatever the form, from 55.4 to 58.6 - 60.7% (Kusmartono, 2002).

Conclusion

Jackfruit leaves, fruits or fruit wastes can be introduced in diets for lactating or growing animals. Jackfruit products are generally well consumed by the animals whatever the presentation. However, an appropriate supplement (energy and/or protein) must be provided to enhance the utilization of the leaves, fruits or fruit wastes in order to properly balance the diet. Deoending on the presentation of the leaves (hung above the , chopped or tied or leaves and stems separated in the trough), the intake by goats can be different. In some situations, they eat more leaves and stems when they are tied or when leaves and stems are separated in the trough rather than chopped or hung (Do Thi Thanh Van et al., 2005). In other situations, a higher DM intake was observed when stems and leaves were hung rather than put into the trough (Phengvilaysouk et al., 2006).

Anthelminthic and antiparasitic fodder

Jackfruit leaves used in diets for growing lambs or goats or adult goats were reported to limit the number of internal parasites (Nguyen Kim Lin et al., 2003; Khuc Thi Hue et al., 2008; Setyono et al., 2019). Products extracted from seeds also had anthelmintic effects on Haemonchus contortus by inhibition of the lactate dehydrogenase in adult worm (Davuluri et al., 2020).

Jackfruits and their wastes are rich in energy and are referred to as a valuable feed resource for pigs (Nansereko et al., 2021; Elevitch et al., 2006). However, no reference about their use in pigs could be found (as of 2021).

Seed meal

In Nigeria, the inclusion of raw jackfruit seed meal was assessed as an alternative feed resource for broilers, during 8 weeks in Nigeria. Increasing inclusion levels (10%; 20% and 30% of soybean meal) of jackfruit seed meal in the diet of broilers depressed growth performance and hindered Feed : Gain ratio. It was concluded that jackfruit seed meal should be included at only a restricted level of 10% replacement of soybean meal (Eburuaja et al., 2017). A similar experiment with toasted jackfruit seed meal was done in 2-week old chickens to replace 5%, 10% or 15% of dietary soybean meal. It was also concluded that toasted jackfruit seed meal could only be used at a low level of inclusion (5%) to avoid detrimental effect on animal performance en Feed: Gain ratio (Eburuaja et al., 2019).

Leaves

A study was conducted in India on the effect on rabbit growth rate of the distribution of an extruded diet containing 15% jackfruit dried leaves in comparison with other tree leaves as source of fibre (Pasupathi et al., 2015). With jackfruit leaves the growth rate was close to that obtained with the Desmanthus virgatus control diet (9.3 vs 10.1 g/d) but higher than that obtained with Leucaena leucocephala leaves (8.8 g/d). In another 8-week study with growing rabbits, fresh jackfruit leaves were introduced in addition to a concentrate diet, at 50% of DM intake of rabbits. Average daily gain of rabbits was a little bit lower than with the control ration (13.4 vs 15.2 g/d) but again better than the growth rate obtained in the same conditions with Leucaena leucocephala leaves (11.3 g/d) (Pasupathi et al., 2016, Pasupathi et al., 2017).

According to these results, jackfruit leaves, fresh or dried, seem to be a suitable safe forage for growing rabbits. However, it should be noted that the nutritive value of jackfruit leaves nutritive value is highly variable and an inclusion level of 15% in the ration seems reasonable.

No information could be found in the international literature (as of 2021) on the use of jackfruit leaves in the feeding of lactating rabbit does. However, because this forage is suitable for growing rabbits or for lactating goats (Nguyen Thi Mui et al., 2002a; Bakshi et al., 2016), it could most probably be suitable for lactating or breeding rabbit does.

Fruits

No information could be found (as of 2021) in the international literature on the utilisation of jackfruits in rabbit feeding. Nevertheless, ruminants and pigs readily eat fallen fruits, and fruit wastes are referred to as valuable fodder for cattle, pigs, goats and other small ruminants (Elevitch et al., 2006; Prakash et al., 2009). Thus, fruits (cut in pieces) and fruit wastes could be considered as suitable material for rabbit feeding. Fruits and fruit wastes should mainly be regarded as source of starchy energy due to their low protein and fibre content (Amadi et al., 2018).

Seeds

As for fruits, no information could be found in the international literature (as of 2021) on the use of jackfruit seeds in rabbit feeding. Some in vitro studies demonstrated an important anti-protease activity in the raw seeds tested with a rabbit pancreatic preparation (Bhat et al., 1989). Since raw jackfruit seeds and heat-treated jackfruits seeds could be included in broiler chicken diet at low levels (Eburuaja et al., 2019; Eburuaja et al., 2017), it could thus be considered that raw or heated jackfruit seed flour is a potential source of fibre and proteins in rabbit feeding (Ocloo et al., 2010; Bakshi et al., 2016; Chhetri et al., 2016). Direct experiments with rabbits would be necessary to determine the optimum inclusion level and the usefulness of heat treatments of jackfruit seeds. The seed content in sulphur amino acids is about 2.5 times the rabbit requirements, but lysine is only 85% of those requirements (Amaechi et al., 2016; Lebas, 2013).