Kupang
Parkia timoriana · Tree bean
- Names in the book
- Kopag̃, Tag.
- Colours
- floweryellow, whitepodblack
- Native range
- Northeast India to Malesia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Abounds in the provinces of central Luzon. Blooms in December.
- Family
- Fabaceae, filed in the book under Leguminosæ
- Printed as
- Parkia Roxburghii, G. Don. (P. brunonis, Grah.; P. biglobosa, Benth.; Mimosa peregrina, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 107 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Parkia timoriana is a species of flowering plant in the Mimosa subfamily (Mimosoideae) of the legume family. English common names include tree bean. It is native to Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Assam and Manipur in India. It is widely cultivated for food and wood, and as an ornamental. The tree is vulnerable to the pest insect Cadra cautella, a moth. The larva bores into the seed to pupate, feeding on the seed interior and filling it with webbing. It also consumes the flower heads.
Excerpt from “Parkia timoriana” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 57 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 4 provinces: Metropolitan Manila (3), Bataan (2), Palawan (2), Rizal (2).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The fruit is edible. Its pulp is golden yellow with a sweetish taste and an odor like that of violets.
The roasted seeds are used in certain parts of Africa to make an infusion like coffee, for which reason they have been called “Soudan Coffee.”
The pulp was analyzed by Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen in 1887; it contains 60% of its weight of sugar (a mixture of dextrose and levulose), 0.98% of free tartaric and citric acids, fats, albuminoids, etc.
Botanical description
A large tree of the first order. Leaves opposite, twice abruptly pinnate. Leaflets small, linear, more than 40 pairs. Principal petiole with one glandule at the base and often another higher up. Calyx long, tubular, with 5 unequal lobules. Corolla, 5 equal petals. Stamens 10, monadelphous. Ovary free, unilocular, multi-ovulate. Pod, 1° × 1′, woody, much compressed, brown, with many seeds embedded in a yellow pulp.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- GC-MS and molecular docking analyses of phytochemicals from the underutilized plant, Parkia timoriana revealed candidate anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory agents
- Effect of Hydrothermal Cooking and Germination Treatment on Functional and Physicochemical Properties of Parkia timoriana Bean Flours: An Underexplored Legume Species of Parkia Genera
- Impact of choline choride and sugar natural deep eutectic solvents on structure and functionality of treebean (Parkia timoriana) seed protein