Publication
from Agroforestree Database: a tree reference and selection guide
version 4.0
by C. Orwa, A. Mutua, R. Kindt, R. Jamnadass and S. Anthony
Aegle
marmelos (L.) Correa
Local Names:
Burmese (opesheet, ohshit); English (bael fruit, Indian bael, holy
fruit, golden apple, elephant apple, Bengal quince, Indian quince,
stone apple); French (oranger du Malabar, cognassier du Bengale, bel
indien); German (Belbaum, Schleimapfelbaum, Baelbaum); Gujarati (bili);
Hindi (baelputri, bela, sirphal, siri-phal, kooralam); Indonesian (maja
batuh, maja); Javanese (modjo); Khmer (bnau); Lao (Sino-Tibetan)
(toum); Malay (bilak, bel, bila, maja pahit); Portuguese (marmelos);
Thai (matum, mapin, tum); Vietnamese (trai mam, mbau nau)
Family:
Rutaceae
Botanic
Description
Aegle
marmelos is a slow-growing, medium sized tree, up to 12-15
m tall with short trunk, thick, soft, flaking bark, and spreading,
sometimes spiny branches, the lower ones drooping. Young suckers bear
many stiff, straight spines. A clear, gummy sap, resembling gum arabic,
exudes from wounded branches and hangs down in long strands, becoming
gradually solid. It is sweet at first taste and then irritating to the
throat.
The deciduous, alternate leaves, borne singly or in 2's or 3's, are
composed of 3 to 5 oval, pointed, shallowly toothed leaflets, 4-10 cm
long, 2-5 cm wide, the terminal one with a long petiole. New foliage is
glossy and pinkish-maroon. Mature leaves emit a disagreeable odor when
bruised.
Fragrant flowers, in clusters of 4 to 7 along the young branchlets,
have 4 recurved, fleshy petals, green outside, yellowish inside, and 50
or more greenish-yellow stamens.
The fruit, round, pyriform, oval, or oblong, 5-20 cm in diameter, may
have a thin, hard, woody shell or a more or less soft rind, gray-green
until the fruit is fully ripe, when it turns yellowish. It is dotted
with aromatic, minute oil glands. Inside, there is a hard central core
and 8 to 20 faintly defined triangular segments, with thin, dark-orange
walls, filled with aromatic, pale- orange, pasty, sweet, resinous, more
or less astringent, pulp.
Embedded in the pulp are 10 to 15 seeds, flattened-oblong, about 1 cm
long, bearing woolly hairs and each enclosed in a sac of adhesive,
transparent mucilage that solidifies on drying.
Biology
In India flowering occurs in April and May soon after the new leaves
appear and the fruit ripens in 10 to 11 months from bloom–March to June
of the following year.
Ecology
The tree grows wild in dry forests on hills and plains of central and
southern India and Burma, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also in mixed
deciduous and dry dipterocarp forests. A. marmelos is a subtropical
species. In the Punjab, it grows up to an altitude of 1,200 m where the
temperature rises to 48.89° C in the shade in summer and descends to
-6.67°C in the winter, and prolonged droughts occur. It will not fruit
where there is no long, dry season, as in southern Malaysia.
Biophysical
Limits
Altitude: 0-1200 m
Mean annual temperature: -6- 48 deg C.
Mean annual rainfall: 570-2000 mm
Soil types: A. marmelos
is said to do best on rich, well-drained soil, but it has grown well
and fruited on the oolitic limestone of southern Florida. It also grows
well in swampy, alkaline or stony soils having pH range from 5 to 8. In
India it has the reputation of thriving where other fruit trees cannot
survive.
Documented
Species Distribution
Native:
India
Exotic: Bangladesh, Egypt, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, Thailand
The
map above shows countries where the species has been planted. It does
neither suggest that the species can be planted in every ecological
zone within that country, nor that the species can not be planted in
other countries than those depicted. Since some tree species are
invasive, you need to follow biosafety procedures that apply to your
planting site.
Products
Food:
A. marmelos
fruits may be cut in half, or the soft types broken open, and the pulp,
dressed with palm sugar, eaten for breakfast, as is a common practice
in Indonesia. The pulp is often processed as nectar. Beating the seeded
pulp together with milk and sugar makes a popular drink called sherbet
in India. A beverage is also made by combining bael fruit pulp with
that of tamarind.
Mature but still unripe fruits are made into jam, with the addition of
citric acid. Confection, bael fruit toffee, is prepared by combining
the pulp with sugar, glucose, skim milk powder and hydrogenated fat.
Indian food technologists view the prospects for expanded bael fruit
processing as highly promising.
The young leaves and shoots are eaten as a vegetable in Thailand and
used to season food in Indonesia. They are said to reduce the appetite.
An infusion of the flowers is a cooling drink.
The food value per 100 g of fresh bael fruit as analyzed in India and
the Philippines is: water 54.96-61.5 g, protein 1.8- 2.62 g, fat
0.2-0.39 g, carbohydrates 28.11-31.8 g, ash 1.04-1.7 g, carotene55 mg,
thiamine 0.13 mg, riboflavin1.19 mg, niacin 1.1 mg, ascorbic acid 8-60
mg and tartaric acid 2.11 mg.
Fodder:
The leaves and twigs are lopped for fodder.
Timber:
The wood is strongly aromatic when freshly cut. It is gray-white, hard,
but not durable; has been used for carts and construction, though it is
inclined to warp and crack during curing. It is best utilized for
carving, small-scale turnery, tool and knife handles, pestles and
combs, taking a fine polish.
Gum or Resins:
The gum enveloping the seeds is most abundant in wild fruits and
especially when they are unripe. It is commonly used as a household
glue and is employed as an adhesive by jewelers. Sometimes it is
resorted to as a soap-substitute. It is mixed with lime plaster for
waterproofing wells and is added to cement when building walls. Artists
add it to their watercolors, and it may be applied as a protective
coating on paintings.
Tannin or
dyestuff: There is as much as 9% tannin in the pulp of
wild fruits, less in the cultivated types. The rind contains up to 20%.
Tannin is also present in the leaves. The rind of the unripe fruit is
employed in tanning and also yields a yellow dye for calico and silk
fabrics.
Essential oil:
The essential oil of the leaves contains d-limonene, 56%
a-d-phellandrene, cineol, citronellal, citral; 17% p- cyrnene, 5% cumin
aldehyde. The limonene-rich oil has been distilled from the rind for
scenting hair oil.
Poison:
The leaves are said to cause abortion and sterility in women. The bark
is used as a fish poison in the Celebes. Tannin, ingested frequently
and in quantity over a long period of time, is antinutrient and
carcinogenic. Leaf extract from A. marmelos has been found to have
insecticidal activity against the brown plant hopper (Nilaparvata
lugens Stål), an important pest of rice plant in Asia
Medicine: A decoction of the unripe fruit, with fennel and
ginger, is prescribed in cases of hemorrhoids. It has been surmised
that the psoralen in the pulp increases tolerance of sunlight and aids
in the maintaining of normal skin color. It is employed in the
treatment of leucoderma. Marmelosin derived from the pulp is given as a
laxative and diuretic. In large doses, it lowers the rate of
respiration, depresses heart action and causes sleepiness. For
medicinal use, the young fruits, while still tender, are commonly
sliced horizontally and sun-dried and sold in local markets. They are
much exported to Malaysia and Europe.
Because of the astringency, especially of the wild fruits, the unripe
bael is most prized as a means of halting diarrhea and dysentery, which
are prevalent in India in the summer months.
Other products: The fruit pulp has detergent action and has been used
for washing clothes. The shell of hard fruits has been fashioned into
pill- and snuff boxes, sometimes decorated with gold and silver. A
cologne is obtained by distillation from the flowers. In the Hindu
culture, the leaves are indispensable offerings to the 'Lord Shiva'.
Tree
Management
The tree has no exacting cultural requirements, doing well with a
minimum of fertilizer and irrigation. The spacing in orchards 6-9 m
between trees. Seedlings begin to bear in 6 to 7 years, vegetatively
propagated trees in 5 years. Full production is reached in 15 years.
Normally, the fruit is harvested when yellowish-green and kept for 8
days while it loses its green tint. Then the stem readily separates
from the fruit. A tree may yield as many as 800 fruits in a season but
an average crop is 150 to 200, or, in the better cultivars, up to 400.
Pests and
Diseases
The bael fruit seems to be relatively free from pests and diseases
except for the fungi causing deterioration in storage..
Further
Reading
CABI. 2000. Global Forestry Compendium. CD-ROM. CABI.
Hiremarh IG, Ahn YJ and Kim Soon-II. 1996. Insecticidal Activity of
Indian Plant Extracts against Nilaparvata lugens (Homoptera Delphacidae).
App. Entomol. Zool. 32(1): 159-166.
Pushpakumara DKNG. 2007. Chapter 8: Beli Aegle marmelos L.
Correa: In: Pushpakumara DKNG, Gunasena HPM, Singh VP. eds. 2007.
Underutilized fruit trees in Sri Lanka. World Agroforestry Centre,
South Asia Office, New Delhi, India. p. 249-276.
Thampman PK (ed.). 1993. Trees and tree farming. Peekay Tree Crops
Development Foundation. Kerala, India.
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