Plant atlas Short
Salak: Snake-Skin Fruit With Sweet-Tart Cloves
Salak / Snake Fruit · สละ · Salacca zalacca
Salak / Snake Fruit — สละ (sala) — Salacca zalacca.
Salak — sah-lah — snake-skin scales peel back to firm, ivory cloves of sweet-tart fruit, and here's how to eat it and what the lab tests measured. In lab and animal tests, concentrated salak extract slowed alpha-glucosidase, a starch-digesting enzyme, and post-meal glucose markers. The edible part is the fruit. Salak also delivers iron, which is part of hemoglobin, the protein red blood cells use to carry oxygen. Thai cooks turn it into desserts: Salak Loy Kaew is peeled, seeded fruit simmered in pandan sugar syrup and served cold over crushed ice, while Salak Song Khruang tosses the fruit in a spicy palm-sugar sauce with chili and shrimp paste, then tops it with dried shrimp and sliced chilies. To eat it fresh, peel the snakeskin to reach the firm cloves; each one holds a large inedible seed. A squeeze of lime adds vitamin C, which helps your body absorb the fruit's plant iron. The palm itself is fiercely spined, so wear thick gloves to handle it. Follow Longevity Biome for a new Thai plant every day.
Salak Loy Kaew — สละลอยแก้ว (salak-loy-kaew)
Salak Song Khruang — สละทรงเครื่อง (salak-song-kruang)
Source: Saleh MSM et al. (2018). α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of Salacca zalacca extracts. Molecules / PMC6100117. Seed-extract rat OGTT: Molecules 2023, 28(19):6775
Educational content, not medical advice! Consult your doctor before changing diet or medication.
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Food and nutrients
Rich in: iron
Research context
Salak extracts inhibited a starch-digesting enzyme and blunted post-meal glucose in lab/animal tests — Molecules, 2021 (in-vitro/animal)