Guava - Tree of Happy Childhood

Where have all the kids gone?

Native guava (Psidium guajava) Family Myrtaceae

Where have all the happy children gone

Perched on the spreading branches bowing,

Their faces and clothes with fruit stain over

Heeding no care, time and parents calling.

Doldrums, doldrums, how hard it is to bear,

In the school like Huckleberry Finn;

The tree's image on the blackboard seen,

With the hours in countdown to the scene.

The clock strikes five and the tree is alive again;

Make haste for childhood comes back never.

And the guava tree does not stay long neither,

'Cept in sweet memory where it lives forever. ~

  

If there is a ninth or tenth wonder of the world, it is the guava tree. For me it is the first wonder - the wonder of childhood.

Have you seen a tree bearing “fruits” bigger – and heavier - than its whole structure?

And here is one for the Book of Guinness. Have you heard the guava tree talk, laugh and shout, sing beautifully or grunt, make echolocation signals? Parents remind their children not to miss their siesta or classes. Then doldrums reigns but briefly. But soon the children are back to their favorite tree.

Take the backseat London Bridge, Golden Gate or Eiffel Tower. The guava tree can bend and touch the ground, and become upright again – not once, not twice but many times in its lifetime - and in a child's lifetime. And every branch equally obliges to the 180-degree weight and pull of children. No wonder the best spinning top and the best frame for slingshot are made from guava wood, and is perfect "Y", too.

It is a living Christmas tree, sort of. Birds come frequently. The perperoka and panal - migratory birds from the North, come with the Amihan and eat on the berries, while combing the place of worms, and gleaning on anything left by harvesters. The pandangera bird (fan-tailed) dances on the branches, while the house sparrow perches, picking on ripe fruits and small crawlers. And if you wake up very early, meet the butterflies and bees gathering nectar and pollen from the flowers. Take a deep breathe of the morning air spiced with the fragrance of both flowers and ripe fruits.

And the tree has eyes. True. Round and luminescent in the dark, mingle with the fireflies and the stars – and a waning moon. It is romantic, scary and sacred. Fruit bats come at night and pick the ripe fruits. Rodents and wild pigs scavenged at night. Moths and skippers, relatives of the butterfly, are nocturnal in their search for food and mate. Old folks would warn us kids never to go near the tree at night. In my career as biologist I had the experience to see in the middle of a field guava trees lighted with fireflies. This scene was in Sablayan in Mindoro island. What a sight - Christmas in another time and in another place. What a magnificent sight!

Would a child go hungry where guava trees abound? I don’t think so. Because the fruits are packed with sugar, vitamins and minerals. The fruits are made into jelly, pickled and cooked as vegetable. It is perfect for sinigang. Have you heard of guava wine? It is the most aromatic of all table wines made from tropical fruits, and it displays a rare pinkish glow. Nutritionists say guava is rich in Vitamin C, richer than most fruits, local and imported. I came to learn later of the cancer-preventing substance derived from Psidium guajava,its scientific name, and its miraculous healing attributes.

Name the ailments commonly encountered, and the guava offers a dozen home remedies. Chew the tops and make a poultice to relieve toothache. The village dentist tells you to first make a poultice the size of a marble, then after he has extracted your tooth, he tells you to seal the wound with it to prevent bleeding and infection. Pronto you can go back to your usual chore.

Guava stem is the first toothbrush, try it. Soften the smaller end and you can also use it as toothpick. This is practical when traveling in a remote area. Chew a leaf or two for astringent and tooth paste. Crushed leaves serve as aromatherapy, a new term today. And for an unconscious person, burn some dried leaves, fan the smoke toward the patient while pressing his large toe with your thumb nail. The patient senses both pain and smoke and soon takes a deep breathe - another, and another, until he gets enough oxygen and he wakes up.

Decoction of guava leaves for bath is practical in eliminating body odor. Guava soap is effective against skin disorders like pimples and eczema.

My daughter Anna Christina developed in her college thesis Guava Ointment, an all-natural antibacterial solution of the plant’s anti-inflammatory and therapeutically active properties against wounds or burns. Extract from the leaves contains 5 to 10 percent tannin, and fixed oils that have antibacterial and inhibitory effects against microorganisms that cause infection.

Here are the main ingredients of Anna’s Guava Ointment.

• Tannin, a non-crystallizable complex polyhydroxylphenolic compound is present in the leaves and stems.

• Fixed Oil which is frequently found in the roots, stems, branches, flowers and fruits. It exists as oil globules in special cells.

• Volatile Oil is an odorous compound found in various plant parts. It usually evaporates when exposed to the air at ordinary temperature. It is obtained by stem distillation, solvent extraction or absorption into purified fats.

• Petrolatum is the ointment base used, sometimes called “Petroleum Jelly”. It is a purified mixture of semi-solid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum.

You can make your own Petrolatum with castor oil, coconut oil, beeswax, sorbitan tristearate, silica, tocopherol (vitamin E), and natural flavor. You may consult your local pharmacist about these ingredients. Petrolatum is thoroughly mixed with the extract and kept for use in a typical ointment container.

When I was a kid my auntie-yaya would gather succulent green guava fruits as remedy for LBM. Tannin regulates the digestive enzymes and stabilizes the digestive flora. She would also make guava leaf tea as a follow-up treatment.

As an offshoot of all these experiences, I asked my students to look into the potential value of guava seeds. The seeds contain 14 percent oil, 15 percent proteins, and 13 percent starch. And study also the bark and leaves in the development of drugs against diarrhea, and as astringent.

At one time I was isolating yeasts that occur in nature which I needed in preparing bubod – yeasts complex for basi wine fermentation. I stumbled upon two kinds of yeasts - Saccharomyces elipsoides and Brettanomyces - the second, I discovered is the secret of French wine quality. This French yeast resides in our home yard, in the flower of the native guava!

 

Preparing guava jelly at home; closeup of ripe fruits. 

 

Guava bird; closeup of flowers, source of wild yeast strain for wine making.

Later I found out, the same yeast naturally occurs in the flowers of macopa (Eugenia jambalana) and duhat (Syzygium cumini), both members of the guava family - Myrtaceae. I am very grateful to the Food Development Center (FDC) under the National Food Authority for helping me in the isolation and identification of these specimens.

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Guava is the tree of happy childhood. The tree bears fruits and children. Look at all the children climbing, swinging on its branches, some armed with bamboo poles, others with small stones, still others with slingshots aiming at one thing: the ripe fruits on the tree. The tree builds sweet childhood memories.

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Nature has a way of preserving the guava species through seed dormancy. Dormancy is a temporary delay of seeds to germinate for a few days to several years. This is important as a survival mechanism. Guava seeds are not destroyed by gastric juice and peristalsis of the digestive system of animals that eat the fruits, whether they are cold or warm blooded. It is because of their thick and hard pericarp. This biological process enhances not only germination but dissemination in a new territory.

You can’t crack guava seeds. If you do, especially with a decayed tooth you’ll end up going to your dentist. Oh, how I would wince and hold on anything. Either the old tooth is forced out of its place or the seed has lodged in a cavity.

Old folks also believe that guava seeds can cause appendicitis. Well, its seed is too large to enter this rudimentary organ. I believe though that it is its abrasive nature that makes way for bacteria to enter and cause infection. And subsequently inflammation. Well, if this is true, then it’s a risk one takes in eating guava. You really can’t remove all the seeds, and if you succeed you take away the fun and quaintness of eating guava.

We have introduced foreign varieties of guava which really don’t grow into a tree. The fruits are very much bigger, but far from being as sweet as those of our native variety. In a few years the guapple, as it is called, becomes senile then dies, while the native guava lasts for a lifetime, a generation, perhaps longer, and reach several feet high.

Today when I see children climbing guava trees it reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of its many friends – birds, ground fowls like ducks, chicken, bato-bato (wild pigeons), goats and self-supporting native pigs. I imagine butterflies, dragonflies and Drosphila flies attracted by the ripening fruit. And frogs and toads patiently waiting for these flies to become their prey. Finches and sparrows, the quick and dainty La Golondrina (swift), the pandangera, panal andperperroka – I miss them.

Yes, the fruit bats, they are the source of children stories, among them is about clumsy bats dropping their load of ripe fruits accidentally falling of rooftops. In the dead of the night what would you imagine? “It’s the manananggal! (half-bodied female vampire).” Our folks at home would even make their voice tremble. And we would cling to each other in bed we kids in our time. Our elders would take advantage of the situation and whisper, “If you don’t sleep, it will come back.”

In the morning who would care about the mannanaggal? Or seeds causing appendicitis? Or the danger of falling from the tree. Or chased by wild boar? Or challenged by billy goat or brooding hen? As usual we would search for ripe berries and have our fill. Then we would hurry down and run to relieve ourselves, too loaded we simply take comfort in some thickets. In time guava trees would be found growing in these places.

Years after, I will see children climbing these trees and having their fill of the fruits, joyous in this adventure of childhood, making the guava tree the greatest wonder of the world. ~