The Serumpun Codex · Fruits, nuts, seeds and fungi
Buah keluak
The seed of the kepayang tree, poisonous until it is washed, soaked, roasted or fermented.
The entry
- Name
- Buah keluak
- Other names
- Kepayang; kepayang lenga, kepayang papan, kepayang bubur (Sarawak)
- Scientific name
- Pangium edule Reinw.
- What it is
- The seed of the kepayang tree, poisonous until it is washed, soaked, roasted or fermented.
- Knowledge from
- Village growers across Sabah and Sarawak.
- How it is used
- Every part holds hydrocyanic acid; the seeds must be washed, soaked, roasted or fermented. In Sarawak the oil cooks and preserves fish and meat.
- Season and place
- Grows wild or semi-cultivated in primary and secondary forest, also along riverbanks, mostly below 300 m. Sarawak herbarium specimens include Kuching, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, Miri, Niah, Belaga, Ulu Kapit and Ulu Sungai Melinau. Across its range it fruits one to four times a year, apparently mostly at the start of the rainy season.
- Conservation status
- Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2021 assessment).
- 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
- PROSEA
- PROSEA, Pangium edule, via Pl@ntUse
- Faridah-Hanum, I., Morphological variation of Pangium edule fruits in Malaysia, Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 48, 1996
- IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group & BGCI, Pangium edule, IUCN Red List 2021 (doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T143874361A192377449.en), as served by GBIF
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) ‘Buah keluak’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/buah-keluak/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.