SANTOL is one of the most common fruits in the Philippines and it is readily available throughout the year. This is one of the reasons why if you mention the fruit to Filipinos now living abroad, they will have something to say.

"I have not eaten santol for many years now," said a Filipina now living in Minnesota. "Where can I find that here? My mouth is watering."

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Another one, who works in New York, commented, "Santol is what I miss back home because I can't find it here. I like it, especially if it is sour."

Santol looks like overgrown apples but don't share the flavor. "The santol," wrote P.J. Wester, one of earliest Americans who had done extensive research on tropical fruits, "is one of the most widely distributed fruits in the Philippines. The tree is hardy, of vigorous and rapid growth, and succeeds well even where the dry season is prolonged. The fruit is produced in great abundance, in fact in such profusion that large quantities annually rot on the ground during the ripening season."

Small wonder why Filipino children consider santol as their favorite fruit. In rural areas, wherever you go, you can find santol and mostly it's yours for taking.

Inside the fruit, there is a white juicy pulp around three to five seeds. The seeds are up to two centimeters long. Because the flesh is strongly attached to the seeds, you have to suck it to taste it.

The pulp is mostly sub-acid or sour. Filipinos like it in that sour condition and eat the fruit with some salt. The fruit is usually consumed raw without peeling. There are varieties which have sweet flavor and these are used to make delicious marmalade, very popular in markets around Europe and the United States.

Santol is known scientifically as Sandoricum koetjape and called wild mangosteen by English speaking countries. It has several other names: gratawn in Thai, kompem reach in Khmer, tong in Lao, donka in Sinhalese, and faux mangoustanier in French.

The fruit is believed native to former Indochina and Peninsular Malaysia. Later, it was introduced into Indian, Borneo, Indonesia, the Moluccas, Mauritius, and finally to the Philippines, where it has become naturalized. There are two varieties of santol, the yellow and the red rind. The yellow rind is the most common in the country.

Santol grows from sea level of elevation to a height of 3,000 feet above sea level. It grows better in deep and organic grounds, and with great distribution of rainfall throughout the year, although it tolerates long periods of dry season. The distance of planting from each other is 20 to 25 feet.

For maximum yields, santol requires fertilization two times a year.

Normally, seed trees produce fruit five to seven years after planting. A very productive tree, it can produce between 18,000 and 24,000 fruits per year. The ripe fruits are harvested by climbing the tree and plucking by hand, alternatively a long stick with a forked end may be used to twist the fruits off.

The piquant santol can be enjoyed in many ways. In the Philippines, it is dipped in salt and sucked, scored, and sweetened with sugar for a cool glass of santolada. Some Filipino entrepreneurs export santol marmalade in glass jars to Oriental food dealers in the United States and other parts of the world.

In India, santol is eaten raw with spices. With the seeds removed, it is made into jam or jelly. Pared and quartered, it is cooked in syrup and preserved in jars. Since the very ripe fruits are naturally vinous, these can be fermented with rice to make an alcoholic drink.

As the fruit is sour when not fully ripe, some cooks use it in mouth watering sinigang. The famous sinigang na bangus sa santol, as served in Pagsanjan, Laguna, is pink and pristine, with no vegetable at all, just santol seeds and pulp, sweetly sour.

Like most tropical fruits, santol is also valued for its medicinal properties. The preserved pulp is employed medicinally as an astringent. Crushed leaves are used as poultice on itching skin.

Some Filipino mothers placed fresh leaves of santol on the body of a child with fever to cause sweating. The leaf decoction is also used to bathe the patient. The bitter bark, containing the slightly toxic alkaloid and a steroidal sapogenin, is applied on ringworm and also enters into a potion given a woman after childbirth. The aromatic, astringent root also serves the latter purpose, and is a potent remedy for diarrhea.

An infusion of the fresh or dried root, or the bark, may be taken to relieve colic and stitch in the side. The root is a stomachic and antispasmodic and prized as a tonic. It may be crushed in a blend of vinegar and water which is then given as a carminative and remedy for diarrhea and dysentery.

But there's more to santol fruits than food and medicine, according to Julia F. Morton, author of Fruits of Warm Climates. The bark, for instance, can be used in tanning fishing lines; some Filipino fishermen employed it as such.

The wood of the tree is also useful. "If carefully seasoned," wrote Morton, "it can be employed for house-posts, interior construction, light-framing, barrels, cabinetwork, boats, carts, sandals, butcher's blocks, household utensils and carvings." When burned, the wood emits an aromatic scent.

But what most Filipinos are not aware of is that those who are fond of swallowing the seeds when eating santol are courting a potentially life-threatening risk.

"Most of the time, the seeds will be passed out through the anus during bowel movement," said Dr. Reynaldo Joson, head of surgery at the Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center. "However, in some cases, the seeds may cause intestinal obstruction by sticking together to form a hard bolus of seeds or by completely plugging the intestinal lumen that has been previously and partially constricted by a disease like a tumor or tuberculosis."

There was this case of a woman who swallowed 10 seeds of santol. Three days later, she experienced abdominal pain at the left lower quadrant with loose bowel movement. She took various antispasmodics and painkillers, which only afforded temporary relief of the pain.

When the pain became unbearable, she was brought to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her to have intestinal obstruction. On the fourth day at the hospital, the patient died of multiple organ failure.

Death like hers is unnecessary. Every year, about 200 of such cases occur in the Philippines. Because of this, doctors are urging officials to consider swallowing santol seeds as a public health problem.

"Why santol seeds are being swallowed by Filipinos?" doctors wonder.

"It could be unintentional. If it is intentional, it is most likely eating enjoyment together with the perception that the seeds can be swallowed without any adverse effect."