Aegle marmelos

The fruit has various common names, such as bael fruit, Indian bael, golden apple, elephant apple, Indian quince, and stone apple. == Description ==

Aegle marmelos is a deciduous shrub or small to medium-sized tree, up to tall with slender drooping branches and rather open, irregular crown. Bark The bark is pale brown or grayish, smooth or finely fissured and flaking, armed with long straight spines, singly or in pairs, often with slimy sap oozing out from cut parts. The gum is also described as a clear, gummy sap, resembling gum arabic, which 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. Leaves The leaf is trifoliate, alternate, each leaflet x , ovate with tapering or pointed tip and rounded base, untoothed or with shallow rounded teeth. Young leaves are pale green or pinkish, finely hairy while mature leaves are dark green and completely smooth. Each leaf has 4–12 pairs of side veins which are joined at the margin. Flowers The flowers are 1.5 to 2 cm, pale green or yellowish, sweetly scented, bisexual, in short drooping unbranched clusters at the end of twigs and leaf axils. They usually appear with young leaves. The calyx is flat with 4(5) small teeth. The four or five petals of overlap in the bud. Many stamens have short filaments and pale brown, short style anthers. The ovary is bright green with an inconspicuous disc. Fruits The fruit typically has a diameter of between . It is globose or slightly pear-shaped with a thick, hard rind and does not split upon ripening. The woody shell is smooth and green, gray until it is fully ripe when it turns yellow. Inside are 8 to 15 or 20 sections filled with aromatic orange pulp, each section with 6 (8) to 10 (15) flattened-oblong seeds each about 1 cm long, bearing woolly hairs and each enclosed in a sac of adhesive, transparent mucilage that solidifies on drying. The exact number of seeds varies in different publications. The fruit takes about 11 months to ripen on the tree, reaching maturity in December. Numerous hairy seeds are encapsulated in a slimy mucilage. Chemistry The bael tree contains furocoumarins, including xanthotoxol and the methyl ester of alloimperatorin, as well as flavonoids, rutin and marmesin; a number of essential oils; and, among its alkaloids, á-fargarine(=allocryptopine), O-isopentenylhalfordinol, O-methylhafordinol. Aegeline (N-[2-hydroxy-2(4-methoxyphenyl) ethyl]-3-phenyl-2-propenamide) is a constituent that can be extracted from bael leaves. Aeglemarmelosine has been isolated as an orange viscous oil. == Habit and habitat ==

, India. Aegle marmelos is native across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and is cultivated throughout Sri Lanka, Tamilnadu, Thailand, and Malesia. In this country, states where the bael fruit is grown include Uttar Pradesh, states in Eastern India (Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Orissa), as well as in the Himalayan foothills, the Deccan plateau and the Indo-Gangetic plains. It occurs in dry, open forests on hills and plains at altitudes from with mean annual rainfall of . It has a reputation in India for being able to grow in places that other trees cannot. It copes with a wide range of soil conditions (pH range 5–10), is tolerant of waterlogging and has an unusually wide temperature tolerance from . It requires a pronounced dry season to give fruit. == Toxicity ==

Aegeline is a known constituent of the bael leaf and consumed as a dietary supplement with the intent to produce weight loss. FDA had previously taken action against an earlier formulation of OxyElite Pro because it contained dimethylamylamine, a stimulant that FDA had determined to be an adulterant when included in dietary supplements, and could cause high blood pressure and lead to heart attacks, seizures, psychiatric disorders, and death. All of these patients had been using the reformulated OxyElite Pro, which they had purchased from different sources, and which had different lot numbers and expiration dates, at doses within the manufacturer's recommendation. but the mechanism of how aegeline may damage the liver has not been isolated. == Uses ==

Culinary Rich in vitamin C, ==In culture==

, the icon of Shiva Bael is considered to be one of the sacred trees of Hindus, (known in Sanskrit as बिल्व ), and thus they are used in Hindu rites. Earliest evidence of the religious importance of bael appears in the Sri Sukta of the Rigveda, which reveres this plant as the residence of goddess Lakshmi, the deity of wealth and prosperity. Bael trees are also considered an incarnation of the goddess Sati. Bael trees can be usually seen near Hindu temples and home gardens. It is believed that Shiva is fond of bael trees, to a point of having earned the epithet बिल्वदण्ड Bilvadaṇḍa or "bel-staffed". In the traditional practice of the Hindu and Buddhist religions by people of the Newar culture of Nepal, the bael tree is part of a fertility ritual for girls known as the Bel Bibaaha. Girls are "married" to the bael fruit; as long as the fruit is kept safe and never cracks, the girl can never become widowed, even if her human husband dies. This is a ritual that guarantees the high status of widows in the Newar community compared to other women in Nepal. The fruit appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the Daddabha Jataka (J 322). In it, the Buddha tells an early version of the Henny Penny story, in which a hare is frighted by the fruit falling on a palm leaf. == See also ==