The tree sheds its leaves during the dry season, which can last most of the year depending on the climate zone. Leaves are digitate, normally having 5 leaflets when mature. The leaflets have entire margins and are elliptic to obovate-elliptic, with acuminate apex and a decurrent base.
Mature leaf size may reach a diameter of 20 cm. The flowers bloom during the wet season and the dry season as well. They are very large and suspended on long peduncles. The fruit is bottle or cucumber shaped and develops 5-6 months after florescence. It has a woody outer shell, 7.5-54 cm long x 7.5-20 cm wide, covered by velvety yellowish, sometimes greenish hairs.
The internal fruit pulp is split into mealy agglomerates that enclose several reniform seeds (approximately 10 mm long) (Sidibe and Williams, 2002). Because of its great size and diffusion, the Baobab is an extremely the impressive tree. It symbolizes the African savanna better than any other plant. Its spongy wood does not burn; therefore the plant is protected from fire. Hollowed out baobab trunks in the vicinity of villages are used for water storage.
In areas where the baobab tree grows, there are traditions that prohibit communities from cutting down the baobab tree and any other fruit bearing trees. Where there has been extensive deforestation, this has resulted in a situation whereby the baobab and other fruit trees are the only trees to remain standing (Kurebgaseka, 2005). The baobab tree is also a good fodder tree especially for game. Cattle eat the leaves and flowers that would otherwise fall to the ground. Baobab roots can be tapped where water is a problem.
Kremetartboom, kremetart (Afrikaans)
Humier (fruit), hamao, gungole (fruit), teidoum, tebeldi, tabaldi, hamaraya (Arabic)
Mubuyu (Bemba); mapou zombi (Creole)
Sour gourd, monkey bread tree, lemonade tree, baobab, cream-of-tartar tree, guinea tamarind, upside-down tree (English)
Pain de singe, calebassier, mapou etranger, arbre aux calabasses, mapou zombi (French)
Boki, bokchi (Fula)
Affenbrotbaum (German)
kuka (Hausa)
Gorakh-imli, gorakh-cinch, gorak amla, khura-sani-imli, gorak ali, gorak lichora, kapla-vriksha (Hindi)
Muyu, mubuyu (Lozi)
Sito, sira (Mandinka)
Mlambe, mkulukumba, mbuyu (Nyanja)
Aliha gaha (Sinhala)
Yak (Somali)
Mbuyu (Swahili)
Anaipuli, paparapulia, perruka, anaipuliya-maram (Tamil)
Momret, hermer banba, kommer, duma (Tigrigna)
Mubuyu (Tongan)
Mowana (Tswana)
Bui, buee, goui, gui, gwi (Wolof)
IsiMuku, umShimulu, isiMuhu (Zulu)
By DAWN STARIN
New York Times
May 25, 2009
IT’s known as the baobab in English, sito in Mandinka, gwi in Wolof and Adansonia digitata in botanical circles. Sometimes it’s called the upside-down tree, because its weirdly shaped branches resemble roots. It was made famous in the West by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s fable “The Little Prince.”
In Africa, the baobab tree is steeped in mystique and surrounded by superstition. Many people believe that its spirit protects the community around it, and its tangible properties certainly nourish those who live near it. Parts of the tree are used to make rope and fishing line; to feed goats, sheep and cows; and to provide shelter, food and medicine.
While living in Gambia I saw parts of the baobab used to treat everything from malarial fever, infertility and asthma to headaches and toothaches. I have no idea if and how these local remedies worked, but all of a sudden the rest of the world — Western health food companies included — is catching on. There’s a growing belief that the baobab may be the world’s newest super food.
The tree’s white, powdery fruit is rich in antioxidants, potassium and phosphorus, and has six times as much vitamin C as oranges and twice as much calcium as milk. The leaves are an excellent source of iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum and phosphorus, and the seeds are packed with protein.
The baobab was approved for European markets last year, and the Food and Drug Administration is expected to follow suit soon. The fruit’s dry pulp will be sold as an ingredient in smoothies and cereal bars. Already, a small jar of African baobab jam made in England sells for around $11. According to the Natural Resources Institute in Britain, an international baobab industry could bring in about $1 billion a year and provide jobs for 2.5 million African families. On paper this sounds great, but there’s another side to the picture.
The baobab has never been a plantation tree; it grows wild in arid regions. (It can also be found in Australia, but it thrives in few other places outside Africa.) Presently people harvest only what they need and maybe a bit more to sell at local markets. If it becomes an international commodity, the baobab probably would need to be planted as a crop, even though arable soil is limited. The open land where local people now freely harvest wild baobab could be developed by agribusinesses into plantations, or else precious forests or farmland used to grow everyday staple crops could be turned over to the baobab export industry.
Although local people would probably find jobs on such farms, their ability to harvest or purchase the baobab themselves would be limited. They wouldn’t be able to pay as much as London dealers could. This means that some Africans could lose a source of household wealth, an important part of their diet and an essential pharmaceutical resource.
These possibilities — not to mention the threat of corruption, poor wages and genetic modification leading to a loss of the tree’s biodiversity — are not random predictions. Africa is no stranger to the overexploitation of its natural resources. But the solution isn’t necessarily to cut the baobab off from international markets. Regulations could be put in place to protect the tree, its environment and the people who depend on it — and still allow for profitable production.
The coffee trade provides a model. It’s clear that many consumers are willing to pay more for fairly traded coffee — which costs enough to provide the growers a decent wage for their labor. This bottom-up pricing should be applied to the baobab market, even if it means European health nuts have to pay a lot for their smoothies.
The baobab’s new popularity is exciting, but the European Union, the United States and African exporters should decide on regulations before the baobab is rushed to European and North American markets.
In Saint-Exupéry’s story, the planet the Little Prince lives on is too small to support the baobab. This is hardly our situation, but the Little Prince still has some useful advice for us: Taking care of your planet, he says, “is very tedious work, but very easy.”
Dawn Starin is an anthropologist.
Makasutu a 500-hectare piece of bush in the Kombo central district of the republic of The Gambia is deemed by some to be protected by an ancient sprit. They say he is there in the form of a ninkinanko or dragon, and protects the hidden crown and clothes of King Jatta from Busumbala who was killed 200 years ago by the Muslim king Kombo Silla on his way east to take over the country. Jatta's men took the crown and clothes and placed them for safekeeping in the area of Makasutu, now known as the Big Forest.
This skyline of ancient baobab and strangler trees looms over the eastern end of Makasutu and is now under the self-imposed guardianship of Echin, a Jola tribesman.The Ninki Nanko is not the only presence there to ward off encroaching. Along with him are jinns and giants -- spectral creatures that straddle animism and Islam.
They help watch over an Edenesque orchard, which is thought to appear to those with a purity of heart trekking across the land. Mandingo tribesmen tell you in ominous undertones that you can eat the fruit of the orchard while you are in the forest but can never leave with it.
When the Islamic wave came down through the Sahara in the 12th century it gave Makasutu its name, and greater protection from the men who wanted to ravage the bush of timber and wildlife. It became a place of prayer, and so a Mecca (Maka) in the forest (sutu). It was strictly protected by local kings and marabouts who said that no tree could be felled or animal hunted in the sacred grounds. The land until the turn of the century was used only for godly communion.
Men prayed and boys recently circumcised in the name of Allah were brought to bathe in Mandina Bilon -- a tributary of the main Gambia river that lies five kilometres to the north. The Bilon brings fish to Makasutu as the tide swells; from its sandy banks grow thick lines of mangroves, and from their grey tentacles the Koran women collect oysters.
As the 20th century moved in Makasutu with its untouched supply of wood and wildlife became a new mecca for the people of Kembujeh and neighbouring villages. It was on the verge of being stripped bare, when in 1992 Lawrence Williams,an architect, and James English, an engineer, came across the land and decided it would make a perfect location for a retreat and oasis for overlanders coming down off the Sahara.
They bought the land from the Sanni family who had ancient ownership rights, and after eight years of fencing and planting thousands of trees the land once again has found a protectorate.Makasutu has become a model for ecotourism in Africa.
Local women continue to grow crops on the western portion, and oyster women come and collect as ever, but now the birds are returning in droves to the trees and baboons stop at the safe haven on their migration route.
Momadou Jeeba, a Jola tribesman, has been manager at Makasutu for the past seven years and revealed that long before Williams and English arrived he and others had dreams that two whites would come by river and settle at Makasutu and keep it from harm -- a myth that has now turned into reality.
Several authors have published about baobab food products. Data on macronutrients, micronutrients, amino acids, and fatty acids were collected from literature for pulp, leaves, seeds, and kernels of the baobab tree.
The results show that baobab pulp is particularly rich in vitamin C; consumption of 40 g covers 84 to more than 100% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of pregnant women (19-30 years).
The leaves are particularly rich in calcium (307 to 2640 mg/100 g dw), and they are known to contain good quality proteins with a chemical score of 0.81.
The whole seeds and the kernels have a relatively high lipid content, 11.6 to 33.3 g/100 g dw and 18.9 to 34.7 g/100 g dw, respectively.
The pulp and leaves exhibit antioxidant properties with a higher activity in the pulp than in the leaves.
Reported nutrient contents of different baobab parts show a large variation, which may have arisen from various factors.
