CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Background of the Study

The native tropical fruit species that are widely cultivated in countries such as in the

Philippines are very important for the economic well-being of small farmers in Asia.

Most of these species have various purposes for food, shelter, timber, fuel, medicine,

and other uses. Tropical fruits and their diverse uses make a significant contribution to

food and nutritional security, income generation, poverty reduction, and environmental

sustainability. The commercial use of fruit is widely accepted for human consumption,

while non-commercial tropical fruit is still underutilized. This fruit known as Averrhoa

Bilimbi Linn or Kamias in Tagalog is a native tropical fruit that is cultivated semi-wild

everywhere in the Philippines. This fruit plays an important role in the prevention of

chronic diseases since they're a rich source of micro-nutrients such as vitamin A,

vitamin C, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and fiber. The need to make these

fruits more popular and widely available is of great importance to society (Ramirez,

Singian, Cruz 2017). But in Real Quezon, All-Women Group dubbed Kilos Unlad

Mamayan ng Real (KUMAR) Inc. saw the tremendous potential of kamias by converting

the underutilized crop into an additional source of income. KUMARE was able to

develop a product based on kamias such as pickles, dried sweets, and juices, among

others. For more than 2,000 active members in the municipalities of Real, Infanta,

General Nakar, and Polilio, KUMARE has been chosen by the Department of

Agriculture-Quezon Agricultural Research and Experimental Station (DA-QARES) for a

program to commercialize kamias through a program called "Commercialization of

Kamias Production and Utilization for the Women's Group KUMARE of Real, Quezon”

funded by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research under its National Technology

Commercialization (NTCP). Besides, they are willing to participate in livelihood and

revenue-generating activities, particularly related to processing and product marketing.

KUMARE aims at empowering women to live as fully as possible. This can be

accomplished by helping them improve their economic situations, obtain higher

education for their children, have adequate health education and training, and protecting

the environment. The project leader Dennis Bihis explained that the advancement of

research on how to minimize the over-use of primary crops by exploring with the use of

underutilized crops can be a successful option and an additional source of income. One

promising crop, which is locally abundant and can offer a lot of benefits, is kamias.

Representatives of KUMARE attended the training lead by DA-QARES on the

production of kamias, field management, and product development. Current products

that are made from kamias include prunes, candies, and soap. Experiments are

currently being performed to determine the oxalic acid content of the fruit to be used as

a bleaching agent or as an anti-browning agent. Kamias soap and sinigang powder are

now available on KUMARE’s Real, Quezon business outlet, and local markets. The

market connection for the two products has been established and will also be made for

other products once analyzed and packaged. The group is looking to tap into the

province's lively tourist industry and arrangements are being made to supply beach

resorts, hotels, and other tourist establishments with products. Engaging in soap, candy,

and prunes production proved profitable with an investment return of 161 percent with a
payback period of one year and seven months (The Manila Times, 2017). Beyond its

uses as food and soap, kamias has been widely used in traditional medicine because it

has a highly beneficial effect on cured diseases such as cough, rheumatism, itching,

boiling, diabetes, syphilis, cough, cold and hypertension. Previous scientific studies

revealed that phytochemicals containing phenolics, alkaloids, and carotenoids in kamias

fruits also have an excellent variety of bio-activities such as antioxidant, anti-fungal,

anti-proliferation and antiviral, as well as antibacterial activities. Kamias fruit has a high

human impact as the plant produces antimicrobials against micro-organisms. This

protective effect is also associated with high levels of antioxidant properties and bio-

active contents in kamias that can help prevent damage to the human body by reactive

oxygen and nitrogen species, often taking fruits in the diet, resulting in a reduction in the

risk of critical diseases such as stroke and cancer. Flavonoid content, phenolic content,

and antioxidant activity are the bioactive compound identified from the fruit kamias. It is

also rich in antiviral, anti-allergic, and anti-tumor. Flavonoid has low toxicity other than

bioactive compound. Moreover, recent studies have shown that most fruits have

provided plenty of natural antioxidants that can decrease the risk of critical diseases

such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, and cardiovascular diseases as antioxidants are

responsible for reducing the incidence of oxidative damage to the human body. Also,

vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that can act as the most potent antioxidant in food and

beverages (Hasim, 2014).

Kamias is a tropical fruit which is botanically known as Averhhoa Bilimbi Linn. The

kamias is a fruit-bearing tree of the family of plants from the domesticated species of

Averrhoa a closely related to Averrhoa Carambola commonly known as starfruit and it is

a widely known tree that can be found in most backyards. Kamias is widely known in

English as the cucumber tree or tree sorrel and the tree itself is native to most tropical

countries and is known for their tart-tangy flesh. The kamias fruit is intensely acidic,

yellow-green, with a thin, soft skin and crunchy, juicy flesh. The oblong-shaped fruit has

five distinguishable ribs. A cross-section of the fruit shows a five-point star within, which

accentuates the fruit's pentagonal shape. The fruit is similar to smooth-skinned

gherkins. They emerge in clusters of green leaves on bushy trees, and beautiful red-

purple flowers, the fruit has several yellow, small, flat seeds embedded in it Kamias fruit

trees are small and grow to a height of about 15 meters. Each tree can bear hundreds

of fruit, with annual yields of around 50 kilograms. This fruit is used for food flavoring, as

a souring agent for local dishes or it can be eaten raw with salt and it is also used for

product development. Hence, some researchers have successfully developed a product

using kamias one of its examples is the making of kamias jam, kamias wine, candies,

and powdered kamias fruit juice drink. According to Anuar and Salleh (2019), kamias

fruit can be used for making a fruit jam, by processing this fruit into jam it allows to

eaten by people of all ages and it could reduce the amount of wastage of kamias fruit.

Also, the kamias fruit can be introduced as the food flavoring as it contains high in acid

and can act as a souring agent to certain products making the kamias have

multifunctional properties. And this can be presented to adulteration of kamias into food

preservative and food flavoring agents as a functional food. Calio, Arenillo, and Magsino

(2017) conducted to test if kamias fruit can be made into wine using the method of fresh

and sterilized kamias wine. Studies showed that fresh kamias are more appropriate

than sterilized kamias. Kamias was also discovered to be feasible in terms of

marketability and productivity. They believed that this study might contribute to the use

of kamias, especially in fruit wines, in terms of productivity growth. They also believed

that it will help the local farmers process kamias into wine and begin planting kamias

while making it their other source of income. It is also recommended that the acidity and

alcohol content of both wines be checked and that wines be blended with different

flavors. Ramirez, Cruz, and Singian (2017) develop an instant powdered kamias fruit

juice drink using a spray-drying technique. This development will help to promote its

health benefits since its potential source of Vitamin C and considerable amounts of

flavonoids and polyphenols. Furthermore, based on the result of the test conducted by

Gaytos, Abalorio, Lavilla, and Abarilio (2019), bilimbi candy was highly acceptable by

the consumer. Bilimbi Candy is not only for adolescents and adults but for children as

well and also for young professionals that are looking for healthy candy that is chewable

while they were in work to relieve stress. Therefore, Bilimbi is not only used in medicinal

purposes but based on the result of my study Bilimbi is also acceptable as a candy.