The Serumpun Codex · Fruits, nuts, seeds and fungi
Dabai
A small purple-black fruit with rich, oily flesh.
The entry
- Name
- Dabai
- Other names
- Sarawak olive; kembayau (Sabah, Brunei)
- Scientific name
- Canarium odontophyllum Miq.
- What it is
- A small purple-black fruit with rich, oily flesh.
- How it is used
- Soaked in warm water for about twenty minutes, then eaten with soy sauce, sugar or salt; the kernel is eaten too.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- In the overture at Osaka.
- Season and place
- The Rajang basin: Kanowit, Song and Kapit. In season December to January and May to June.
- Conservation status
- Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2024 assessment).
- Geographical Indication
- Sarawak Dabai, effective 9 March 2011
- Codex Alimentarius
- No Codex standard
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: whose knowledge it is and who shared it with Serumpun.
Sources
- DayakDaily, 2022
- Borneo Post
- GBIF, IUCN Red List checklist record for Canarium odontophyllum, citing Energy Development Corporation (EDC), IUCN Red List 2024, e.T197848207A203233686
- IUCN Red List, Canarium odontophyllum
- L.Y. Chew, I. Amin, A. Azrina and C.Y. Lau, Canarium odontophyllum Miq.: An Underutilized Fruit for Human Nutrition and Sustainable Diets, abstract, FAO (file dated 2011)
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) ‘Dabai’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/dabai/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.