The Serumpun Codex · Fruits, nuts, seeds and fungi
Asam paya
The sour fruit of a peat-swamp palm.
The entry
- Name
- Asam paya
- Other names
- Asam kelubi
- Scientific name
- Eleiodoxa conferta (Griff.) Burret
- What it is
- The sour fruit of a peat-swamp palm.
- Knowledge from
- The Melanau, who sour their umai with it.
- How it is used
- With calamansi, the sour in Bintulu umai; also pickled.
- Season and place
- A clustering palm that grows in groups in the undergrowth of lowland freshwater swamps, and is especially abundant in peat swamp forest where the water moves a little.
- Conservation status
- Not assessed on the IUCN Red List.
- Codex Alimentarius
- No Codex standard
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: who shared it with Serumpun and its use in the French Borneo kitchen.
Sources
- UPM study of Bintulu umai
- Eleiodoxa
- PROSEA (Jansen et al.), Eleiodoxa conferta, via Pl@ntUse
- GBIF, IUCN Red List category for Eleiodoxa conferta (Not Evaluated), checked November 2026
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 1 November 2026.
Anyone may cook with this knowledge, commercially too, provided the community it comes from is credited by name. To correct or withdraw this entry, write to the Custodian at connect@chefjameswon.com.
How to cite this entry
Serumpun Sarawak (2026) ‘Asam paya’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/asam-paya/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.