Balanites aegyptiaca

Balanites aegyptiaca (also known as the Desert date, Egyptian balsam and Lalob in Sudan) is a species of tree, classified as a member of either the Zygophyllaceae or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa (excluding South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, Senegal and Tunisia) and parts of the Middle East (from Syria south to Yemen). 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, from arid to subhumid. It is relatively tolerant of flooding, livestock activity, and wildfire. It is an important food tree, with edible leaves and fruits, and has countless local uses. The generic part of the binomial Balanites derives from the Greek word for an acorn and refers to the fruit. This name was coined by Alire Delile in 1813. In Descr. Egypte, Hist. Nat. 221 1813, the specific name aegyptiaca was applied by Carl Linnaeus as the species was initially described from specimens collected in Egypt. The orthographic variant name that complies with ICBN Art 62.4 for this species is Balanites aegyptiacus.

Description

A small evergreen tree. It grows up to 6-15 m high. It is spiny. It produces a rounded crown of tangled thorny branches. The bark is dark brown or grey and has patterns on it. It becomes corky and cracked with age. The branches are stiff and brittle. The branches have stout spines. They are single and 8 cm long. The thorns are soft at first then become woody. The leaves occur as distinctive pairs of grey-green leaflets. The leaves are 2.5-6 cm long by 1.5-4 cm wide. The leaves are slightly different shape in each half. They are leathery and slightly hairy. There are 4-6 prominent veins which are clearly seen on the under side of the leaf. The flowers are in clusters, small and hairy. They are 1.4 cm across. They are yellow-green and have a sweet smell. The fruit is yellowish-green and 5 cm long by 2.5 cm wide. The fruit are date like. Both ends of the fruit are rounded. There is a hard pointy seed about 4 cm long by 2 cm wide. The flesh around the seed is yellow and bittersweet. The seed is easily separated from the flesh.

Edible Uses

Edible Parts: Flowers Fruit Leaves Oil Seed Shoots Stem Edible Uses: Drink Oil The fleshy pulp of both unripe and ripe fruit is edible and can be eaten dried or fresh. It has a slightly astringent taste and can be purgative in larger quantities. The fruit is processed into a drink and sweetmeats in Ghana, an alcoholic liquor in Nigeria, a soup ingredient in Sudan. The ellipsoid fruit is up to 4cm long. Brown or pale brown when fully ripe, with a brittle coat enclosing a brown or brown-green sticky pulp and a hard stone seed. Young leaves and tender shoots are used as a vegetable. They are prepared by boiling and pounding, and are then fried or mixed with fat. The flowers are a supplementary food in West Africa and a flavouring in Nigeria. They are sucked in order to obtain their nectar. A greenish-yellow to orange-red resin is produced from the stems. It is sucked and chewed when fresh. The kernels produce an 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. The seed contains up to 50% oil.

Traditional Uses

The nut or seed is used to make meal. The seeds are boiled in several changes of water then eaten with sorghum. A yellow oil is produced by the seeds after long boiling and is eaten. The fruit and dried pulp are eaten. The fruit is bitter unless very ripe. The fruit are used for syrup and alcoholic drinks. Caution: Alcohol is a cause of cancer. The leaves and flowers are eaten as a vegetable. The resin from the cut bark is chewed.

Medicinal Uses

Antiasthmatic Antidiarrhoeal Antiperiodic Dysentery Emetic Epilepsy Febrifuge Malaria Purgative Stomachic Vermifuge It is traditionally used in treatment of various ailments including 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. The roots are purgative and vermifuge. A decoction of the root is used to treat malaria. The roots are boiled in a soup to be used in the treatment of oedema and stomach pains. They are also used as an emetic. The bark is purgative and vermifuge. An infusion of the bark is used to treat heartburn. The bark is used to deworm cattle in Rajasthan. Wood gum, mixed with maize meal porridge, is used to treat chest pains. The plant is a potential source of steroidal sapogenins (diosgenin) for the hemisynthesis of corticosteroids.

Known Hazards

The plant contains saponins. Although poisonous, saponins are poorly absorbed by the human body and so most pass through without harm. Saponins are quite bitter and can be found in many common foods such as some beans. They can be removed by carefully leaching in running water. Thorough cooking, and perhaps changing the cooking water once, will also normally remove most of them. However, it is not advisable to eat large quantities of food that contain saponins. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish.

Distribution

A tropical plant. It is found all over Africa. It grows in the lowlands. It occurs from arid to sub-humid areas. It suits hot dry areas. It grows in the Sahel. It grows from sea level to 2,000 m altitude. It prefers valley soils but will grow on a range of soils. It suits a rainfall of 200-800 mm. It can grow in arid places. It needs a mean average temperature of 20-30°C. It grows in Miombo woodland in Africa. It has moderate salt tolerance.

Where It Grows

Africa, Algeria, Angola, Arabia, Asia, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinée, Guinea-Bissau, India, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mediterranean, Middle East, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Nigeria, North Africa, Pakistan, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Sahara, Sahel, Saudi Arabia, SE Asia, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Southern Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, UAE, West Africa, West Indies, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe,

Cultivation

It is grown from seed. Seed can be grown in a nursery in pots, or direct. Root suckers can also be used. There are 600-1,200 seed per kg. Seed removed from the fruit can be stored for a year. Seed should be down vertically with the stem end down for best results. Seeds germinate in 1-4 weeks. Soaking the seed helps them germinate. They can be soaked in cold water for 2 days with the water being changed after 24 hours. Seedlings are slow growing but root suckers are faster.

Propagation

Seeds may be collected from fruit that is being processed for other purposes, from dung, and directly from the trees. Soaking in water for some hours and then stirring vigorously separates the stones from the pulp. Seed germination can be improved by immersing the seeds in boiling water for 7 - 10 minutes then cooling then slowly. The effect that passage through an animal’s intestinal tract has on germination is unclear. However, seeds are said to germinate readily, although with some difference associated with date of collection. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox; viability can be maintained for 2 years in air-dry storage at cool temperatures or for several years in hermetic storage at 3°c with 6 - 10% mc. Root suckers. Produced abundantly.

Other Uses

Adhesive Beads Biomass Charcoal Fencing Fibre Fodder Fuel Hedge Oil Resin Shelterbelt Soap making Wood Agroforestry Uses: The usually evergreen behaviour potentially makes this plant an attractive element to introduce into shelterbelts, although because of its slow growth, it is not suitable as a principal species. Its thorny habit makes this tree a useful plant for fencing and hedging. Other Uses An oil obtained from the seed has been recommended for the manufacture of soap. A strong fibre is obtained from the bark. A greenish-yellow to orange-red resin is produced from the stems. It is used as a glue for sticking feathers onto arrow shafts and spearheads and in the repair of handle cracks and arrows. The fruit and bark contain saponins. An emulsion made from them is lethal to the freshwater snails that are the host of miracidia and cercaria stages of bilharzia and to a water flea that acts as a host to the guinea worm. The seeds are used for rosary beads and necklaces. The pale yellow or yellowish-brown wood is fine-grained, compact, hard, durable and easily worked. The heartwood and sapwood are not clearly differentiated. It shows no serious seasoning defects and no tendency towards surface checking or splitting. The wood saws cleanly and easily, planes without difficulty to a smooth finish and is easy to chisel. It glues firmly and takes a clear varnish. The timber has traditionally been a minor product, it is made into yokes, wooden spoons, pestles, mortars, handles, stools and combs. The usually small log size and the prevalence of stem fluting makes sawmill processing difficult. 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. The calorific value is estimated at 4600 kcal/kg. Special Uses Carbon Farming Coppice Food Forest Hedge

Production

(The fruit can be used to treat water supplies to kill the snail hosts of Bilharzia, and the water-flea which carries Guinea worm disease.) Trees produce after 5-8 years. Fruit mature in 60 days. In Tanzania fruit are collected between April and June. A good tree can produce 10,000 fruit in one year. Ripe fruit can be sun dried and stored. Seed kernels can be 60% oil.

Other Information

The fruit are eaten especially by children. It is an important food in desert areas. Fruit tend to be available in the drier more hungry season. Fruit are sold in local markets. It is cultivated.

Notes

There are 9 Balanites species. They are also put in the family Balanitaceae. Chemical composition (Sudan sample, edible portion [after Henry & Grindley]): Protein = 3.3%. Fat = 0.1%. Carbohydrate = 52.7%. Fibre (crude) = 2.1%. Ash = 4.0%. Ca0 = 0.08%. P2O5 = 0.10%. Moisture = 37.8%. Kcal = 231; (kernels): Protein = 27.5%. Fat = 46.5%. Carbohydrate = 11.1%. Fibre (crude) = 1.5%. Ash = 2.9%. CaO = 0.16%. P2O5 = 1.00%. Moisture = 10.5%. Kcal = 591; (oil): Specific gravity at 100 C . = .88919. Saponification value = 186.5. Iodine absorption = 99.2. Melting point about = 8o C. Chemical composition (Sudan after Abdelmuti): Protein (crude) = 5.1% (dry). Fat = 0.4% (dry). Ash (insoluble) = 21.2% (dry). Fibre (crude) = 2.8% (dry). Carbohydrate (soluble): Starch = 30.1% (dry). Sugars: Sucrose = 5.8% (dry). D-glucose = 20.6% (dry). D-fructose = 10.1%. Amino acids (g [16g N]-1): Aspartic acid = 5.1g. Threonine = 2.5g. Serine = 2.0g. Glutamic acid = 6.3g. Proline = 35.8g. Glycine = 3.3g. Alanine = 3.5g. Valine = 2.7g. Cysteine = 1.0g. Methionine = 1.0g. Isoleucine = 2.7g. Leucine = 4.1g. Tyrosine = 2.2g. Phenylalanine = 2.7g. Lysine = 1.6g. Histidine = 1.2g. Arginine = 2.4g. Sulphur = 0.10% (dry). Potassium = 0.04% (dry). Magnesium = 0.10% (dry). Calcium = 0.12% (dry). Na = 0.02% (dry). Zinc = 10 mg/kg-1 (dry). Iron = 620 mg/kg-1 (dry). Manganese = 3 mg/kg-1 (dry). Copper = 2 mg/kg-1 (dry).

Nutrition

Synonyms

Also Known As

Ader, Adogor, Aduwa, Ala'ito, Angalda, Apam, Arraronyit, Baddan, Baddanii, Baddana lu'oo, Baddanno, Bangbaalu, Bedena, Bedeno, Betu, Bito, Bizo, Cheure, Domaye, Domoko, Donkey, Dyemo, Ecomai, Egyptian myrobalan, Ekorete, Eroronyit, Ganyamda, Gari, Ghossa, Goot, Hangala, Hangalta, Hankalta, Hawi, Heglig, Heglieg, Hidjihi, Hidjilit, Hingan, Hinganabet, Hingot, Hingota, Hingua, Ilokua, Ingudi, Kasalusalu, Keglga, Kielege, Kielega, Kilului, Kiluluwi, Kiti, Korak, Kowerou, Kudekuda, Kulan, Kullen, Kuri, Kyeguelga, Lalo, Lalob, Laloub, Logwat, Logwat, Lubwoti, Lugba, Lungoswa, Maghe, Mduguya, Mfwankomo, Mjirya, Mjunju, Mklete, Mkonga, Mkumudwe, Mng'onga, Mnyra, Model, Modha, Mohoromo, Msalu, Mubobua, Mulugunyu, Mulului, Muongo, Muporicoetimu Murtoki, Musongole, Muvambangoma, Mwambangoma, Nanjunda, Njienjia, Nulu, Nyahoko, Nyunguyu, Odhto, Ol-ngoswa, Olg'oswa, Olngoswa, Othoo, Pulupulu, Qota, Quud, Regorea, Sabatit, Sadhto, Sapatit, Segene, Seguene, Shifaraoul, Simple thorned torchwood, Single green-thorn, Sow, Sump, Sumpo, Taichot, Tanne, Tborag, Tebekame, Teboraq, Teboragh, Thau higlig, Thoa, Thoo, Thorn tree, Thou, Tira, Toin, Too, Torchwood, Tow, Tunywo, Tuyun, Tuyunwo, Udayito, Udayto, Umgobandlovu, UmHulu, Zachun-oil tree, Zegene, Zekene

References (137)

• Abbiw, D.K., 1990, Useful Plants of Ghana. West African uses of wild and cultivated plants. Intermediate Technology Publications and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. p 41
• ABDELMUTI,
• Addis, G., et al, 2005, Ethnobotanical Study of Edible Wild Plants in Some Selected Districts of Ethiopia. Human Ecology, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 83-118
• Addis, G., Asfaw, Z & Woldu, Z., 2013, Ethnobotany of Wild and Semi-wild Edible Plants of Konso Ethnic Community, South Ethiopia. Ethnobotany Research and Applications. 11:121-141
• Addis, G., et al, 2013, The Role of Wild and Semi-wild Edible Plants in Household Food Sovereignty in Hamer and Konso Communities, South Ethiopia. Ethnobotany Research & Applications. 11:251-271

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