Billing

Billing Fruit

Botanical Name;  Averrhoa bilimbi L.

Local Names; Billing; Sinhala          

 

Recommended Varieties – Local cultivars

Nutritive Values – Rich in Thiamine, Riboflavin, Vitamin C and Oxalic acid

Medicinal Value/Uses

• Increase appetite

Why are they unique?

• Billing is well known in Sri Lanka from very early days. Billing has sour/ acidic taste with slight sweet after taste. It has very pleasant green color and characteristic cylindrical shape. Billing is cultivated as naturally in forests and home gardens.

Potential for billing fruit processing industry

Billing fruit processing industry in Sri Lanka is still not properly developed. Billing can be used to produce different value added products such as chutney and pickles. These value added products can be produced by either cottage level or large scale level. In addition to that research and development activities should initiate to identify maturity index for different types of Billing storage methods, environmental and consumer friendly ripening methods, development of value added products with enhanced shelf life and preserve nutritional quality etc.

Reference

• Tropical fruits of Sri Lanka, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka