Alibertia patinoi (Cuatrec.) Delprete syn. Borojoa patinoi Cuatrec. - Rubiaceae - borojó

Evergreen dioecious tropical rainforest tree, up to 6m high, native to Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador; fruit a large (about 12cm, “tree of the hanging heads”) edible berry, green when unripe and light brown at maturity, weight between 740 and 1000 g, pulp brown, soft, with intense floral aroma and sweet acid taste. \\
[González-Jaramillo, Nancy, et al. "A libertia patinoi (Cuatrec.) Delprete & CH Perss.(Borojó): food safety, phytochemicals, and aphrodisiac potential." SN Applied Sciences 5.1 (2023): 27] [[https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42452-022-05251-1.pdf|PDF]] \\
[Duarte-Casar, Rodrigo, et al. "Five underutilized Ecuadorian fruits and their bioactive potential as functional foods and in metabolic syndrome: a review." Molecules 29.12 (2024): 2904] [[https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/29/12/2904/pdf|PDF]]

"The brown pulp of fully ripe fruits is processed with sugar into juice, jam, jelly and wine and is used to make dessert, candy and ice cream. The berries are said to have aphrodisiac properties, and the juice is referred to as a love potion (Jugo de Amor)." \\
[Bernd Nowak, Bettina Schulz. Nutzpflanzen der Tropen und Subtropen. Quelle und Meyer Verlag Wiebelsheim, 2019, 5429-431] 

"Alcohols and aldehydes were the most abundant VOCs in underripe and unripe fruits, respectively. The overripe fruit of Borojó exhibited a high amount of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), with methyl hexanoate and methyl octanoate as main components." \\
[Chiquiza-Montaño, Laura N., et al. "Volatiles of the Exotic Colombian Fruit Borojó (Alibertia patinoi Cuatrecasas)(Rubiaceae) at Different Ripening Stages." ACS Food Science & Technology 5.2 (2025): 525-536] 


{{:alibertia_pat.jpg|Alibertia patinoi}} \\
Alibertia patinoi, San José del Palmar, Colombia (2024) © Joel Tupac Otero Ospina [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/|CC BY-SA 4.0]] [[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=788772|inaturalist.org]]