AEGLE MARMELOS [ Stone apple /Japanese bitter Orange]
Most
plants enjoy one or the other special value as food, vegetable, spice,
flavouring agent [vanilla], garnishing stuff or medicine or as spiritual
material [Rudraaksham]; but a few
have places of pride as religious stuff [Thulasi, vilvam, Arasu as known by their
names in Tamil] The tree is sacred to
Hindus and Buddhists alike .
Aegle marmelos
is [Vilvam =Tamil, Bel=Hindi ,Vilvam/Koovalam
=Malayalam, Bilvamu = Telugu,
Bila= Kannada]. The plant is native to South east Asia and is believed
to be native to India. The plant is described to be the lone member of the
Genus –Aegle [monotypic genus] in Botanic par lance.
Quite
a majestic tree is A.marmelos growing
quite tall, widely branched bearing 3 leaves in a group. In South India, the plant is often found in
Shiva temples and seldom used as food stuff. Reports show that the fruit is
used as a a source in making a drink [‘LEMONADE’]by using the fruit pulp. Processed
fruit pulp is used in making Candy.
Chemical
contents of A.maemelos include Furocoumarins,[Xanthotaxol],
Flavonoids, Rutin and marmesin. Aegiline is extracted from the leaves.
Aeglemarmelosine
–a viscous oil is extracted from fruit rind/leaves
Obviously,
many ‘native medicines’ seem to be derived from Aegle marmelos across civilizations in addition to its ‘religious
status’.
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