Cultivated primaily for its fresh fruit, but also canned in syrup, cooked for stewed fruit and jams. The colorful fruits are frequently used in displays with flower and fruit arrangements. The pericarp of rambutan contains tannin and saponin and is dried and used medicinally in Java. In Malaysia, the roots are used in a decoction for treating fever; the leaves for poulticing and the bark for an astringent for tongue diseases. Young shoots are used to produce a green color on silk that is first dyed yellow with turmeric. The fruit dye is one of the ingredients to dye silk a black color. The seeds are edible when roasted, they are bitter and said to be narcotic. A tallow similar to cacao butter, with a high level of arachidic acid, can be rendered from the seeds. The rambutan tallow is edible and can be used to make soap and candles. The reddish colored rambutan wood is fairly hard and heavy, and reputed to be resistant to insects but not to fungi, however, trees are usually too small to be valued as timber.