Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family Moraceae. Its name is derived from the texture of the moderately ripe fruit when cooked, similar to freshly baked bread and having a potato-like flavor.
Breadfruit was spread into Oceania via the Austronesian expansion and is believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut (Artocarpus camansi). British and French navigators introduced a few Polynesian seedless varieties to Caribbean islands during the late 18th century. Today it is widely grown in tropical regions throughout South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean islands, lowland Central America, northern South America and Africa.
In addition to the fruit serving as a staple food in many cultures, the light, sturdy timber of breadfruit has been used for making furniture, houses, and surfboards.
Breadfruit is closely related to A. camansi (breadnut or seeded breadfruit) of New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, A. blancoi (tipolo or antipolo) of the Philippines, and more distantly, A. mariannensis (dugdug) of Micronesia, species that are also sometimes called "breadfruit". It is also closely related to the jackfruit.
Description
Breadfruit trees grow to a height of . The large and thick leaves are deeply cut into pinnate lobes. All parts of the tree yield latex, which is useful for boat caulking.
The trees are monoecious, with male and female flowers growing on the same tree. The male flowers emerge first, followed shortly afterward by the female flowers. The latter grow into capitula, which are capable of pollination just three days later. Pollination occurs mainly by fruit bats, but cultivated varieties produce fruit without pollination. The compound, false fruit develops from the swollen perianth, and originates from 1,500 to 2,000 flowers visible on the skin of the fruit as hexagon-like disks.
Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food plants, with a single tree producing up to 200 or more grapefruit-sized fruits per season, requiring limited care. In the South Pacific, the trees yield 50 to 150 fruits per year, usually round, oval, or oblong, and weighing . Productivity varies between wet and dry areas. Studies in Barbados indicate a reasonable potential of . The ovoid fruit has a rough surface, and each fruit is divided into many achenes, each surrounded by a fleshy perianth and growing on a fleshy receptacle. Most selectively bred cultivars have seedless fruit, whereas seeded varieties are grown mainly for their edible seeds. Breadfruit is usually propagated using root cuttings.
Breadfruit is closely related to the breadnut. It is similar in appearance to its relative of the same genus, the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). The closely related Artocarpus camansi can be distinguished from A. altilis by having spinier fruits with numerous seeds. Artocarpus mariannensis can be distinguished by having dark green, elongated fruits with darker yellow flesh, as well as entire or shallowly lobed leaves.
Propagation Breadfruit is propagated mainly by seeds, though seedless cultivars can be propagated by transplanting suckers that grow from the surface roots of the tree. The roots can be deliberately injured to induce the growth of suckers, which are then separated from the root and planted in a pot or directly transplanted into the ground. Pruning also induces sucker growth. Sucker cuttings are placed in plastic bags containing a mixture of soil, peat, and sand, and kept in the shade while moistened with liquid fertilizer. Once roots have developed, the transplant is put in full sun until it is ready for planting in the orchard.
For large-scale propagation, root cuttings are preferred, with segments about thick and long. Roots may take up to 5 months to develop, with the young trees ready for planting when they are high.
Etymology and common names The term "breadfruit" was first used in the 17th century to describe the bread-like texture of the fruit when baked. Breadfruit has hundreds of varieties and numerous common names varying by its geographic distribution.
Taxonomy
According to DNA fingerprinting studies, the seeded wild ancestor of breadfruit is the breadnut (A. camansi), which is native to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines.
A. camansi was domesticated and selectively bred in Polynesia, giving rise to the mostly seedless A. altilis. Micronesian breadfruit also show evidence of hybridization with the native A. mariannensis, while most Polynesian and Melanesian cultivars do not. This indicates that Micronesia was initially colonized separately from Polynesia and Melanesia through two different migration events, later coinciding in eastern Micronesia.
Breadfruit was one of the canoe plants spread by Austronesian voyagers around 3,000 years ago into Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, where it was not native.
Distribution and habitat
Breadfruit is an equatorial, lowland species. It has been spread from its Pacific source to many tropical regions.
In 1769, Joseph Banks was stationed in Tahiti as part of the expedition commanded by Captain James Cook. The late-18th-century quest for cheap, high-energy food sources for slaves in British colonies prompted colonial administrators and plantation owners to call for breadfruit to be brought to the Caribbean. As president of the Royal Society, Banks provided a cash bounty and gold medal for success in this endeavor and successfully lobbied for a British Naval expedition. After an unsuccessful voyage to the South Pacific to collect the plants as commander of , in 1791, William Bligh commanded a second expedition with and , which collected seedless breadfruit plants in Tahiti and transported these to St. Helena in the Atlantic and St. Vincent and Jamaica in the West Indies.
The plant grows best at elevations below , but is found at elevations of . Its preferred soils are neutral to alkaline (pH of 6.1–7.4) and either sand, sandy loam, loam, or sandy clay loam. Breadfruit is able to grow in coral sands and saline soils. The breadfruit is ultra-tropical, requiring a temperature range of and an annual rainfall of .
Nutrition
Breadfruit is 71% water, 27% carbohydrates, and 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). In a reference amount of , raw breadfruit supplies 103 calories, is a rich source of vitamin C (32% of the Daily Value, DV), and provides a moderate source of potassium (16% DV), with no other nutrients in significant content.
Uses
Food
Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical regions. Most breadfruit varieties produce fruit throughout the year. Both ripe and unripe fruit have culinary uses; unripe breadfruit is cooked before consumption. Before being eaten, the fruit is roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. When cooked, the taste of moderately ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or similar to freshly baked bread.
One breadfruit tree can produce each season. Because breadfruit trees usually produce large crops at certain times of the year, the preservation of harvested fruit is an issue. One traditional preservation technique known throughout Oceania is to bury peeled and washed fruits in a leaf-lined pit, where they ferment over several weeks and produce a sour, sticky paste ( in Samoa and Tonga, in Tahiti, mā in the Carolines). Cited in Stored in this way, the product may endure a year or more. Some pits are reported to have produced edible contents more than 20 years after burial. Remnants of pit-like formations with stone scattered around (presumed to line them) are often clues indicating prehistoric settlement to archaeologists studying precontact history of French Polynesia.
In addition to being edible raw, breadfruit can be dried and ground into flour and the seeds can be cooked for consumption.
Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands and Madagascar
The seedless breadfruit is found in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, where it is called . It is commonly made into fritters and eaten as snacks. Breadfruit fritters are sold as local street food.
In the Philippines, breadfruit is known as in Tagalog and in the Visayan languages. It is also called (also spelled ), along with the closely related Artocarpus camansi, and the endemic Artocarpus blancoi ( or ). All three species, as well as the closely related jackfruit, are commonly used much in the same way in savory dishes. The immature fruits are most commonly eaten as (cooked with coconut milk).
In the Hawaiian staple food called , the traditional ingredient of mashed taro root can be replaced by, or augmented with, mashed breadfruit ( in Hawaiian). The resulting "breadfruit poi" is called .
South Asia In India, fritters of breadfruit, called paatponnos/nirponnos in Kannada it's called Jeegujje or "Deevihalasu" in Konkani or kadachakka varuthath in Malayalam, are a local delicacy in coastal Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. In Seychelles, it was traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice, as an accompaniment to the mains. It would either be consumed boiled (friyapen bwi) or grilled (friyapen griye), where it would be put whole in the wood fire used for cooking the main meal and then taken out when ready. It is also eaten as a dessert, called ladob friyapen, where it is boiled in coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. In Sri Lanka, it is cooked as a curry using coconut milk and spices (which becomes a side dish) or boiled. Boiled breadfruit is a famous main meal. It is often consumed with scraped coconut or coconut sambol, made of scraped coconut, red chili powder, and salt mixed with a dash of lime juice. A traditional sweet snack made of finely sliced, sun-dried breadfruit chips deep-fried in coconut oil and dipped in heated treacle or sugar syrup is known as rata del petti.Apé Lamā Lōkaya:1950, Chapter 31 (Vijitha Yapa Publications)
Caribbean and Latin America
In Belize, the Mayan people call it masapan.
In Puerto Rico, breadfruit is called mapén, panapén or pana, for short, although the name pana is often used to refer to breadnut, seeds of which have traditionally been boiled, peeled, and eaten whole. In some inland regions, it is also called mapén and used to make pasteles and alcapurrias. Breadfruit is often served boiled with a mixture of sauteed bacalao (salted cod fish), olive oil, and onions, mostly as tostones where about 1-inch chunks are fried, lighty flattened, and fried again. Mofongo de panapén is fried breadfruit mashed with olive oil, garlic, broth, and chicharrón. Rellenos de panapén is the breadfruit version of papa rellena. Dipping sauce can be made from boiled, ripe breadfruit, similar to chutney, using spices, sesame seeds, herbs, lentil, coconut milk, and fruit. Both ripe and unripe fruit are boiled together and mashed with milk and butter to make pastelón de panapén, a dish similar to lasagna. Ripe breadfruit is used in desserts, including flan de pana (breadfruit custard). Cazuela is a crustless pie with ripe breadfruit, spices, raisins, coconut milk, and sweet potatoes. Breadfruit flour is sold all over Puerto Rico and used for making bread, pastries, cookies, pancakes, waffles, crepes, and almojábana. A Breadfruit Festival in which traditional and novel breadfruit-based dishes are sold is celebrated on the last Friday of August in Barrio Mariana, Humacao, Puerto Rico.Victoria840, Festival de la Pana dedicará su 37ª edición a Victoria 840 , https://www.victoria840.com/festival-de-la-pana-dedicara-su-37a-edicion-a-victoria-840/, August 27, accessed 1 March 2026
In the Dominican Republic, it is called buen pan or "good bread". Breadfruit is not popular in Dominican cookery and is used mainly for feeding pigs.
In Barbados, breadfruit is boiled with salted meat and mashed with butter to make breadfruit coucou. It is usually eaten with saucy meat dishes.