Download Zanthoxylum rhetsa M..

Spice: fruit / Medicine: fruit, seed oil, bark / Food: leaves
Zanthoxylum rhetsa (Roxb.) DC.
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Synonyms: Z. limonella (Dennst.) Alston., Z. budrunga (Roxb.) DC., Fagara rhetsa Roxb., F. budrunga Roxb.
Family: RUTACEAE
Other names: Local names: mak khaen, mak kuang, tchor. Thai: kamchatton, phrik hom, mak mat, ma khuang, ma
khaen, luuk ra mat, mak khuang. Burmese: kathit-pyu. Vietnamese: hoang moc hoi, coc hoi, sen hoi, song, xuong,
muong tu. Chinese: chuan hua jiao. English: Indian ivy-rue, Prickly ash, sichuan pepper. French: clavalier de l’Inde,
fleurs de poivre.
Remark: Other Zanthoxylum species, like Z. nitidum (Roxb.) DC. (khaen kheua) a climber, are also used for its
spice and medicinal properties.
Use: The main value of mak khene is its fruits that are used as a spice resembling pepper and have medicinal value.
The whole panicles are more valued than the pure seeds themselves, and made into jaew. Seed oil works antiinflammatory. It gives shade in upland agroforestry systems to other crops.
Leaves may replace hop in beer brewing, and young leaves are eaten as a
vegetable with laap. Bark and root-bark are used medicinally. Bark contains
highly effective antibacterial substances particularly for gastrointestinal disorders.
Active ingredients: Essential oil in seed characteristic for the odour of the seeds
is mainly from limonene (44%). The typical flavour of sichuan peppers is due to
essential oils containing terpenoids (alkaloid) stored in the fruitshell and not in the
seeds. Alkaloides budrungainine and budrungaine are also found, and in the bark
also canthinone and berberine.
Harvesting: Ripe fruits are dried in the sun and stored in a ventilated place.
Yield, densities: From 1 tree about 5 kg of seeds can be collected. Seed production
starts at the age of 5-6 years.
Access rules: Normally no management rules exist.
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Sustainability: Sufficient amounts of seeds fall on the ground before and during harvesting, and when birds eat
them. Natural densities are somewhat low, but trees are easy to grow. Sometimes trees are cut down to obtain seed,
this should be discouraged.
Conservation status: Category B.
Processing: Seeds are air-dried.
Quality criteria:
Marketing: Dry fruit panicles with seed are sold at local markets. In the provinces the
price of mak khene is ca. US$1/kg (fresh). Export of seeds to Europe, sold in
Hamburg, for DM3,000/tonne (1993).
Market prospects: As a common spice in the north and the species ability to
regenerate easy, prices may remain at a medium to low level. Over the internet sold in
a pack of 100 gram of single herb extract for US$7.3 (2004) in the Chinese market.
Propagation: Mak khene trees often establish naturally on abandoned shifting
cultivation fields and are tended later. Propagated by seed.
Description: Mak khene is a deciduous tree up to 18 m tall, with a DBH to 20 cm. The bark of young trees is green
with spines, of older trees grey with woody prickles (2-3 cm). All parts of the tree have a lemon like aroma.
Spreading crown, with spiny branchlets. Long compound alternate leaves to 30-40 cm long, with 5-23 ovate-oblong
leaflets in pairs, short hairs on lower surface, 5-22 cm long and 2-7 cm wide. Inflorescence paniculate, axillary or
terminal, densely pubescent, 13-16 cm long. Flowers 2-3 mm long, yellowish-green or whitish. Capsule 6 mm wide,
in large clusters of up to 100 fruits, 1 black seed, 5 mm in diame ter, black, lemon smell when crushed. Leaves are
shed in the dry season.
Distribution & Ecology: Mak khene is growing in secondary evergreen forests, has a fast growth, and is frost
tolerant. It occurs on loamy alluvial soils of medium moisture and fertility, but also on red laterite soils, in moist
areas. Associated with Keteleeria evelyniana and Pinus merkusii. Found mainly in the north but also in Vientiane
and Bolikhamxay provinces. Recorded from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malay
Peninsula, Cambodia and Vietnam.
References: SM50, FTCHXK03, TUNTFP97, ACS02, PMT90, TFM, FGFTNT00, JAA, NVPL59, PROSEA, KATZ,
NTFPCP00, PMC, BKF, IBP98, BEER, FHF99, LSUAFRP1/2.