The Serumpun Codex · Fruits, nuts, seeds and fungi
Perah
The seed of a forest tree, poisonous fresh and eaten boiled, roasted or fermented.
The entry
- Name
- Perah
- Other names
- Kelampai (Iban); rampeh, rapi (Bidayuh)
- Scientific name
- Elateriospermum tapos Blume
- What it is
- The seed of a forest tree, poisonous fresh and eaten boiled, roasted or fermented.
- Knowledge from
- Iban and Bidayuh names are recorded; which Sarawak communities eat it is to be confirmed.
- How it is used
- Fresh seeds hold cyanide; they are eaten boiled, roasted or fermented.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- In the first appetiser at the Kuching Finale.
- Season and place
- Across its range it flowers and fruits throughout the year. It grows in hilly mixed dipterocarp and secondary forest, kerangas and forest edges, from sea level to 600 m.
- Conservation status
- Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2023 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.
Sources
- Naturalis, Malesian Euphorbiaceae
- PROSEA
- Zainal Ariffin, A.Hj., Elateriospermum tapos, IUCN Red List 2023 (doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T62003342A62003344.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) ‘Perah’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/perah/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.