Plant
Common Name: Desert
date,Mjunju (in Swahili),Mohoromo (in Chagga),Ol-ng\’oswa (Maasai
Local
name(s)
Hankalta (Konsogna), Baddanno (Oromiffaa),
Badana, Guasa (Amargna), Kullan (Somali)
Scientific
Name: Balanites
aegyptiaca
Family:
Balanitaceae
Species : Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile
Vernacular
name:
Ayurvedic : Ingudi, Angaar Vrksha,
Taapasadrum, Taapasa vrksha, Dirghkantaka.
Unani : Hingan, Hanguul.
Siddha : Nanjunda.
Folk : Hingol, Hingota, Hingothaa.
English : Desert date, Soapberry tree, Thorn
tree,
Egyptian balsam
Arabic : Heglig
French : Dattier du desert, Hagueleg,
Balanite
Spanish : corona di Jesus
Origin
of Name: Africa
and Middle east
Habitat: The species is found from all over
Africa from arid and semi-arid regions to humid savannah,it also prefers valley
soils and will grow in sand,clay,black cotton,alluvial,and stoney soils.
Synonym(s)
Agialida aegyptiaca Kuntze
Balanites ferox G. Don.
Balanites racemosa Chiov.
Balanites roxburghii Planch
Ximenia aegyptiaca L.
Balanites aegyptiaca1, pallida (variety)
(Sands), glabra, rotundifolia
Balanites roxburghii Planch)
Agialida senegalensis,
Agialida barteri,
Agialida tombuctensis,
Balanites ziziphoides,
Balanites latifolia
Distribution
Balanites aegyptiaca Del.
(Zygophyllaceae), known as ‘desert date,’ is spiny shrub or tree up to l0 m
tall, widely distributed in dry land areas of Africa and South Asia. Balanites
aegyptiaca is a species of tree, classified either as a member of the
Zygophyllaceae or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa and
parts of the Middle East. Balanites aegyptiaca is found in the Sahel-Savannah
region across Africa. It is one of the most common trees in Senegal and
Mauritania.
Balanites
aegyptiaca Del.is
one of the most common but neglected wild plant species of the dry land areas
of Africa and South Asia. This tree is native to much of Africa and parts of
the Middle East.
In
India, it is particularly found in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and
Deccan. This is one of the most common trees in Senegal. It can be found in
many kinds of habitat, tolerating a wide variety of soil types, from sand to
heavy clay, and climatic moisture levels.
The
desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca, Del. L.) is one of the neglected
staple crops of growing importance in the drought and famine-prone areas of
Uganda.
This species is to be found in all the dry
lands of Africa down to Katanga and Tanzania in the south. It is common in
Israel, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, and the drier parts of Pakistan and
India. In the Sahel, flowers appear long before the rainy season (April) and
fruits ripen and fall in December-January
It is a multibranched, evergreen tree
distributed throughout the drier parts of India.
It is
widely grown in the Sudano-Sahielian region of Africa, the Middle East and
South Asia. It is known by various
names, e.g. Arabic names: Heglig (tree), lalob (fruit); trade name: zaccone,
zachun, desert date (dried fruit); in
India: Hindi name is Hingot and English name is thorn tree/desert date.
Uses
It has
been used in a variety of folk medicine in India and Asia. Various parts of the
plant are used in Ayurvedic and other folk medicine for the treatment of
various ailments such as syphilis, jaundice, liver and spleen problem, epilepsy
and yellow fever and the plant also has insecticidal, antihelminthic,
antifeedant, molluscicidal and contraceptive activities.
It is traditionally used in treatment
of various ailments i.e. jaundice, intestinal worm infection, wounds, malaria,
syphilis, epilepsy, dysentery, constipation, diarrhea, hemorrhoid, stomach
aches, asthma, and fever. It contains protein, lipid, carbohydrate, alkaloid,
saponin, flavonoid, and organic acid.
Almost
all the parts of B. aegyptiaca plant are traditionally used in several folk
medicines. In the Sahara region of Africa, the fruits are used as oral hypoglycemic
drug while the stem, root and leaf
extracts of B. aegyptiaca have commonly been used as various traditional folk
medicines especially in Africa and southern Asia. The fruits are also commonly
used as purgative, antiparasitic and schistosomicide. The fruit mesocarp
contains a large variety of phytochemicals such as pregnane glycosides,
coumarins, flavonoids,alkaloids, 6-methyl-diosgenin and furostanol saponins.
Food
Many parts of the plant are used as famine
foods in Africa; the leaves are eaten raw or cooked, the oily seed is boiled to
make it less bitter and eaten mixed with sorghum, and the flowers can be
eaten.The tree is considered valuable in arid regions because it produces fruit
even in dry times. Nutritionally, Balanites leaves, flowers and fruit pulp are
good sources of protein, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu. B. aegyptiaca products are
nutritionally and economically important for the rural dryland.
Medicinal
The fruits have been used in the treatment of
liver and spleen diseases. The fruit is also known to kill the snails which
carry schistosomiasis and bilharzia flukes (Tredgold 1986). The roots are used
for abdominal pains and as a purgative. Gum from the wood is mixed with maize
meal porridge to treat chest complaints. The various
parts of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del (Balanitaceae) is used in
Ayurvedic and other folk medicine for the treatment of various ailments such as
syphilis, jaundice, liver and spleen problem, epilepsy and yellow fever. It
is very popular in traditional medicine for treating parasites, sore throat,
constipation and eye irritation.
Traditional
Uses
In Egyptian folk medicine, the fruits are
used as an oral hypoglycemic and an antidiabetic; an aqueous extract of the
fruit mesocarp is used in Sudanese folk medicine in the treatment of jaundice.
Used in food preparations and herbal medicine, especially in Africa and some
developing Countries.
Fruits are used to treat dysentery and
constipation. The seed oil is used to treat tumors and wounds. Used as
laxative, also used in treatment of hemorrhoid, stomach aches, jaundice, yellow
fever, syphilis, and epilepsy.
A fruit is used to treat liver disease and as
a purgative, and sucked by school children as a confectionary in some
countries. The bark is used in the treatment of syphilis, round worm
infections, and as a fish poison. The aqueous leaf extract and saponins
isolated from its kernel cakes have antibacterial activity.[27,28] Seeds are
used as anthelmintic and purgative. Ground seeds are given to camels to cure
impaction and colic.
In East Africa, it is widely used as
anthelmintic. Root is used in various folk medicines for the treatment of
abdominal pain and as purgative, while the bark is employed as a fish poison
and also as a remedy for malaria and syphilis. In Sudanese folk medicine, it is
used to treat jaundice.
In Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, and Ethiopia,
B. aegyptiaca is taken a purgative for colic and stomach ache. In Chad, fresh
twigs are put on the fire in order to keep insects away. For intestinal worm,
the fruits are dried and mashed in millet porridge and eaten.
In Libya and Eritrea, the leaves are used for
cleaning infected wounds. In Sudan and chadthe bar, B. aegyptiaca is component
of soap. The use of the kernel oil for treatment of wounds has been reported
from Nigeria. For contraception, in Nigeria, a mixture of dried leaves powder of
B. aegyptiaca and Ricinus communis in water and in Somalia, the bark of root is
crushed and mixed with two glasses of water, which is then filtered. This
preparation is repeated for three days and one glass is drunk three times daily
for three days.
Other
Uses
B. aegyptiaca has fine-grained dense and
heavy heartwood, it is easily worked and takes a good polish. Although valued
for furniture it may be twisted and difficult to saw. The wood is durable and
resistant to insects making it good for tool handles and domestic items such as
spoons.
Fodder: The fresh and dried
leaves, fruit and sprouts are all eaten by livestock. The tree is lopped for
fodder in India (Maharashta, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan).
Fuel: The wood is good
firewood; it produces considerable heat and very little smoke, making it
particularly suitable for indoor use. It produces high-quality charcoal, and it
has been suggested that the nutshell is suitable for industrial activated
charcoal.
Lipids: The kernels produce
edible oil used for cooking. The oil remains stable when heated and has a high
smoking point, and therefore its free fatty acid content is low. Its scent and
taste are acceptable.
Products and uses
The wood is durable
and resistant to insect damage. It is easy to saw, split, polish, and turn. It
is used for making tool-handles, parts of donkey or camel saddles, small
furniture – stools, low tables – candlesticks, etc. The green leaves are sought
after by sheep, goats and cattle, but they are especially relished by camels.
Seasonal defoliation is more or less pronounced, depending on regions or maybe
on certain populations or strains. Shed, dried-up leaves are still sought after
by camels and sheep. However, it is the green shoots which are most relished,
either young shoots or the leaves which normally appear in June-July in the
Sahel, or young suckers from the bottom of the stem. Camels may browse on this
species up to 18-19 hours a day, taking 340-360 bites and ingesting 1 700 to 1 800
gr of green matter with a water content of 969 L, 026 gr. It is appreciated by
all livestock. Sheep and goats spit out the stones, but cattle swallow them
several times during rumination, and camels swallow them after crushing with
their teeth. This seed is rich in protein (27%) and contains an oil (41%)
called “Zachun oil” which probably entered into the composition of the
scriptural “Nard”. This oil is edible and its extraction leaves a meal whose
feeding value is slightly below groundnut meal. Fruits are sought after by
elephants, baboons, and black-backed jackals. Roan antelopes consume the pulp,
but reject the stones. The aqueous emulsion from the fruit is lethal to the
water-fly Cyclops, a vector of the Guinea-worm, and also to the Aquatic
Molluscae, vectors of bilharzia, as well as for two larval stages of the
parasite responsible for this disease. This emulsion is also used for killing
fish; such fish may be consumed by man as well as water treated with this
preparation. The same properties, due to the presence of a saponoside, are
attributed to the bark. The kernels have been reported to help cure some
intestinal diseases. A tar is also extracted from the seed which is said to be
efficient against camel’s gall. Boiled flowers, called “dobagara” are consumed
with Couscous. The stones called “Kwai Kwaye” are used as pawns in various
games. A large number of medical uses have also been reported.
References:
http://dspace3.mak.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/10570/1534
No comments:
Post a Comment