ja_koniga

Other English names:

Bengal quince, golden apple, stone apple

Other Indian names:

maredu (Andhra Pradesh), bel (Bengal), bil (Gujrat), bael, bil (Himachal Pradesh), bael (Hindi), bilpatra, kumbala, malura (Karnatka), vilwam (Kerala), bilwa (Sanskrit), kuvalum (Tamil Nadu)

Medicinal properties:

Watt (1889) reported the unripe dried fruit to be astringent, digestive and stomachic. According to him, they are prescribed to cure diarrhoea and dysentery. The ripe fruit is a good and simple cure for dyspepsia. The roots, and the bark of the tree are used in the treatment of fever by making a decoction of them. The leaves are made into a poultice and used in the treatments of ophthalmia. According to Dastur (1962), the rind of the ripe fruit is also sometimes used as a medicine.

The roots are sweet, cure the fevers caused by tridosho, stop pain in the abdomen, the palpitation of the heart, and allay urinary troubles. They are also useful in the disordes of vata, pitta and kapha (Kirtikar and Basu, 1935).

The fruits are very useful in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, particularly in the case of patients having diarrhoea, alternating with the spells of constipation. Sweet drink (sherbet) prepared from the pulp of fruits produce a soothing effect on the patients who have just recovered from bacillary dysentery. The unripe and half-ripe fruits improve appetite and digestion (Jain, 1968; Jauhari, 1969).

The pulp from the unripe fruits is soaked in gingelly oil for a week and this oil is smeared over the body before bathing. This oil is said to be useful in removing the peculiar burning sensation in the soles.

According to Dixit and Dutt (1932), the fruits of Aegle marmelos Correa contain a furocoumarin marmalosin, which is responsible for its medicinal properties. The bark contains umbelliferone and other coumarins.