Bitterroot Restoration

Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Oxalidales
Family: Oxalidaceae

Common name: Kamranga(Beng.); Chinese gooseberry, Carambola(Eng.).
Edible Parts: Fruit, flower
Light: Full sun to partial shade
Native Range: Native from Malaysia and Taiwan, with smaller concentrations in Thailand, Israel, Florida, Brazil, Philippians, China, Australia, Indonesia and the warmer parts of India and other areas of the world with the same climate.

Averrhoa carambola is a species of woody plant. It has a number of common names including Carambola and Starfruit. Averrhoa carambola is an attractive, small, slow-growing evergreen tree with a short-trunk or a shrub. The branches are drooping and the wood is white and turns reddish. It has a bushy shape with many branches producing a broad, rounded crown. The compound leaves are soft, medium-green, they are spirally arranged around the branches in an alternate fashion.

The ripe fruit of Averrhoa carambola is administered to halt hemorrhages and to relieve bleeding hemorrhoids. The dried fruit or the juice may be taken to counteract fevers. A conserve of the fruit is said to allay biliousness and diarrhea and to relieve a "hangover" from excessive indulgence in alcohol. A salve made of the fruit is employed to relieve eye afflictions. A decoction of combined fruit and leaves is drunk to overcome vomiting. Leaves are bound on the temples to soothe headache. Crushed leaves and shoots are poulticed on the eruptions of chicken-pox, also on ringworm. The flowers are given as a vermifuge. A decoction of the crushed seeds acts as a galactagogue and ernmenagogue and is mildly intoxicating. The powdered seeds serve as a sedative in cases of asthma and colic.

In Brazil, the carambola is recommended as a diuretic in kidney and bladder complaints, and is believed to have a beneficial effect in the treatment of eczema. In Chinese Materia Medica it is stated: "Its action is to quench thirst, to increase the salivary secretion, and hence to allay fever." In southeast Asia, the flowers are rubbed on the dermatitis caused by lacquer derived from Rhus verniciflua Stokes. In southeast Asia, the flowers are rubbed on the dermatitis caused by lacquer derived from Rhus verniciflua Stokes.