Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Mulberry

Hindi Name : शहतूत | Scientific Name : Morus alba
Family : Moraceae
Uses : It is chiefly used to rear silkworm for silk production. Its foliage can be used as a source of fodder for livestock. The leaves and stems can be cooked as a vegetable. The fruits are edible and can be eaten raw or dried and used as a raisin substitutes. The fruits can be made into juice and beverages. In India, the fruits are traditionally used for dyeing wool in red or purple colour. The bark and wood have been used for centuries for tannery and paper fabrication. It is used as an ornamental, in gardens and along roadsides and avenues. Mulberries or their extracts have antimicrobial, anti-hyperglycaemic, anti-hyperlipidaemic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties and are used to treat a variety of acute and chronic disorders. Morus species' fruits, leaves, twigs, and bark all have substantial anti-tyrosinase inhibitory activity, making them a good choice for use as a whitening ingredient in cosmetics. Mulberries are high in iron, riboflavin, vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium, all of which are essential elements for our bodies. They also have a lot of dietary fibre and a lot of organic substances, like phytonutrients, zeaxanthin, anthocyanins, lutein, and resveratrol, as well as other polyphenolic compounds like resveratrol.
Native: China
General Description:

It is a fast growing, deciduous, medium-sized tree that grows to a height of 25-35m. It has a dense spreading crown, generally wider than the height of the tree. It can have a pyramidal shape or have a drooping habit. Its bole is straight, cylindrical without buttresses and up to 1.8m in girth. The bark is vertically fissured, dark greyish-brown in colour, exuding a white or yellowish latex. The leaves are light green in colour, alternate, petiolate, cordate at their base and very variable in shape. They can be simple or compound, 3-5 lobed, even on the same tree, dentate, palmately veined, coriaceous and caducous. The inflorescence is axillary and pendulous. The flowers are unisexual inconspicuous, greenish in colour, looking like catkins (male flowers) or spikes (female flowers). The trees are monoecious or dioecious without buttresses. The fruit is a 5cm long fleshy, juicy, edible but not very tasty berry that consists in a syncarp of achenes enclosed in succulent sepals. The seeds are very small and the 1000-seed weight is 2.2-2.3g.