Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Indian jujube

Hindi Name : बेर | Scientific Name : Ziziphus mauritiana
Family : Rhamnaceae
Uses : It is a beneficial fruit in India since ancient times. It was mentioned in Yajurveda. In traditional medication, it is used to treat various diseases such as heartburn biliousness, biliousness, astringency, scabies, diuretic, and nausea. Fruit extract concentrates are used to improve healthy skin, moisturise and sunburn. The seed extract of Ziziphus mauritiana in vitro against various cell lines has shown anti-cancer potential. During pregnancy, seeds are taken with buttermilk to stop nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains. Z. mauritiana seeds are crushed and used to manage sleeping disorders and anxiety in traditional Chinese medication. The seeds are blended with oil and employed to treat rheumatic arthritis.
Native: Cape Verde, African Sahara to Sahel to Tanzania, S. Iran to Australia
General Description:

It is a spiny, evergreen shrub or small tree up to 15 m high, with trunk 40 cm or more in diameter; spreading crown; stipular spines and many drooping branches. Bark dark grey or dull black, irregularly fissured. Where climatic conditions are severe, it is commonly a compact shrub only 3-4 m tall. Leaves variable, alternate, in 2 rows, oblong-elliptic, 2.5-6 x 1.5-5 cm, with tip rounded or slightly notched base; finely wavy-toothed on edges, shiny green and hairless above; dense, whitish, soft hairs underneath. Inflorescence axillary cymes, 1-2 cm long, with 7-20 flowers; peduncles 2- 3 mm long; flowers 2-3 mm across, greenish-yellow, faintly fragrant; pedicels 3-8 mm long; calyx with 5 deltoid lobes, hairy outside, glabrous within; petals 5, subspathulate, concave, reflexed. Fruit a drupe, globose to ovoid, up to 6 x 4 cm in cultivation, usually much smaller when wild; skin smooth or rough, glossy, thin but tough, yellowish to reddish or blackish; flesh white, crisp, juicy, subacid to sweet, becoming mealy in fully ripe fruits. Seed a tuberculate and irregularly furrowed stone, containing 1-2 elliptic brown kernels each 6 mm long.