Balanites aegyptiaca is a species of tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

, classified either as a member of the Zygophyllaceae

Zygophyllaceae

The Zygophyllaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains the bean-caper and caltrop. It includes around 285 species in 22 genera.In the APG III system of classification, the families Zygophyllaceae and Krameriaceae compose the order Zygophyllales...

 or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and parts of the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.

There are many common names for this plant. In English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 the fruit has been called desert date; in Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 it is known as lalob, hidjihi, and heglig. In Hausa

Hausa language

Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...

 it is called aduwa, in Swahili mduguyu, and in Amharic

Amharic language

Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working...

 bedena.

Distribution

Balanites aegyptiaca is one of the most common trees in Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

. It can be found in many kinds of habitat, tolerating a wide variety of soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

 types, from sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 to heavy clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

, and climatic moisture levels, from arid

Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...

 to subhumid. It is relatively tolerant of flooding, livestock activity, and wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

.

Description

The Balanites aegyptiaca tree reaches 10 m (32.8 ft) in height with a generally narrow form. The branches are thorny

Thorns, spines, and prickles

In botanical morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles are hard structures with sharp, or at least pointed, ends. In spite of this common feature, they differ in their growth and development on the plant; they are modified versions of different plant organs, stems, stipules, leaf veins, or hairs...

. The dark green compound leaves are made up of two leaflets which are variable in size and shape.

The tree produces several forms of inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 bearing yellow-green bisexual flowers

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....

 which exude nectar. In Senegal, they are pollinated

Entomophily

Entomophily is a form of pollination whereby pollen is distributed by insects. Several insect are reported to be responsible for the pollination of many plant species, particularly bees, Lepidoptera , wasps, flies, ants and beetles. Some plant species co-evolved with a particular pollinator, such...

 by halictid bees

Halictidae

Halictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...

, including Halictus gibber, and flies

Diptera

Diptera , or true flies, is the order of insects possessing only a single pair of wings on the mesothorax; the metathorax bears a pair of drumstick like structures called the halteres, the remnants of the hind wings. It is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, although under half...

, including Rhinia apicalis and Chrysomia chloropiza. The carpenter ant

Carpenter ant

Carpenter ants are large ants indigenous to many parts of the world. They prefer dead, damp wood in which to build nests. They do not eat it, however, unlike termites. Sometimes carpenter ants will hollow out sections of trees. The most likely species to be infesting a house in the United States...

 Camponotus sericeus

Camponotus sericeus

Camponotus sericeus is a species of carpenter ant....

feeds on the nectar. The larva of the cabbage tree emperor moth Bunaea alcinoe

Bunaea alcinoe

Bunaea alcinoe or Cabbage tree emperor moth is an African moth species belonging to the family Saturniidae.Larva Final instar about 70mm in length and about 15mm in diameter. 'Ground colour deep velvety black; each somite, from 4th to 12th, bearing eight yellow tubercular processes, two...

causes defoliation

Defoliant

A defoliant is any chemical sprayed or dusted on plants to cause its leaves to fall off. A classic example of a highly toxic defoliant is Agent Orange, which the United States armed forces used abundantly to defoliate regions of Vietnam during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1970.Defoliants differ...

 of the tree.

Food

The yellow, single-seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

ed fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is edible, but bitter. Many parts of the plant are used as famine food

Famine food

A famine food or poverty food is any inexpensive or readily-available foodstuff used to nourish people in times of extreme poverty or starvation, as during a war or famine...

s in Africa; the leaves are eaten raw or cooked, the oily seed is boiled to make it less bitter and eaten mixed with sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

, and the flowers can be eaten. The tree is considered valuable in arid regions because it produces fruit even in dry times. The fruit can be fermented

Ethanol fermentation

Ethanol fermentation, also referred to as alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process in which sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose are converted into cellular energy and thereby produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as metabolic waste products...

 for alcoholic beverage

Alcoholic beverage

An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...

s.

The seed contains 30-40% seed oil

Vegetable fats and oils

Vegetable fats and oils are lipid materials derived from plants. Physically, oils are liquid at room temperature, and fats are solid. Chemically, both fats and oils are composed of triglycerides, as contrasted with waxes which lack glycerin in their structure...

 and contains the sapogenin

Sapogenin

Sapogenins are the aglycones, or non-saccharide, portions of the family of natural products known as saponins. Sapogenins contain steroid or other triterpene frameworks as their key organic feature. For example, steroidal sapogenins like tiggenin, neogitogenin, and tokorogenin have been isolated...

s diosgenin

Diosgenin

Diosgenin, a steroid sapogenin, is the product of hydrolysis by acids, strong bases, or enzymes of saponins, extracted from the tubers of Dioscorea wild yam, such as the Kokoro...

 and yamogenin

Yamogenin

Yamogenin is a chemical compound of the class called sapogenins. It is found in the herb fenugreek and other plants....

. Diosgenin can be used to produce hormone

Hormone

A hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one...

s such as those in combined oral contraceptive pills and corticoids. The oil is used as cooking oil

Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is usually liquid at room temperature ....

.

The seed cake

Seed cake

Seed cake or bush bread refers to bread made by crushing seeds into a dough after which it is baked . Some seeds need to be heated, hulled and then ground dry, while others can be ground with water. Bush bread was traditionally made by aboriginal Australians...

 remaining after the oil is extracted is commonly used as animal fodder

Fodder

Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...

 in Africa. The seeds of the Balanites aegyptiaca have molluscicide

Molluscicide

Molluscicides, also known as snail baits and snail pellets, are pesticides against molluscs, which are usually used in agriculture or gardening to control gastropod pests like slugs and snails that can damage crops by feeding on them....

 effect on Biomphalaria pfeifferi

Biomphalaria pfeifferi

Biomphalaria pfeifferi is a species of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails.This snail is a medically important pest, because of transferring the disease schistosomiasis....

.

Medicinal

Medicinal uses of this plant are many. The fruit is mixed into porridge

Porridge

Porridge is a dish made by boiling oats or other cereal meals in water, milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish...

 and eaten by nursing mothers, and the oil is consumed for headache

Headache

A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...

 and to improve lactation

Lactation

Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process occurs in all female mammals, however it predates mammals. In humans the process of feeding milk is called breastfeeding or nursing...

. Bark extracts and the fruit repel snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s and copepod

Copepod

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...

s, organisms that host the parasites schistosome

Schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by several species of trematodes , a parasitic worm of the genus Schistosoma. Snails often act as an intermediary agent for the infectious diseases until a new human host is found...

 and guinea worm

Dracunculiasis

Dracunculiasis , also called guinea worm disease , is a parasitic infection caused by Dracunculus medinensis, a long and very thin nematode . The infection begins when a person drinks stagnant water contaminated with copepods infested by the larvae of the guinea worm...

, respectively.

Agroforestry

The tree is managed through agroforestry

Agroforestry

Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock.It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.-Definitions:According to...

. It is planted along irrigation canals and it is used to attract insects for trapping. The pale to brownish yellow wood is used to make furniture and durable items such as tools, and it is a low-smoke firewood

Firewood

Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....

 and good charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

. The smaller trees and branches are used as living or cut fences because they are resilient and thorny. The tree fixes nitrogen

Nitrogen fixation

Nitrogen fixation is the natural process, either biological or abiotic, by which nitrogen in the atmosphere is converted into ammonia . This process is essential for life because fixed nitrogen is required to biosynthesize the basic building blocks of life, e.g., nucleotides for DNA and RNA and...

. It is grown for its fruit in plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s in several areas. The bark yields fibers

Natural fiber

Fibers or fibres are a class of hair-like materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. They can be spun into filaments, thread, or rope. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to...

, the natural gum

Natural gum

Natural gums are polysaccharides of natural origin, capable of causing a large viscosity increase in solution, even at small concentrations. In the food industry they are used as thickening agents, gelling agents, emulsifying agents, and stabilizers...

s from the branches are used as glue

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

, and the seeds have been used to make jewelry

Jewellery

Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...

 and bead

Bead

A bead is a small, decorative object that is usually pierced for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under to over in diameter. A pair of beads made from Nassarius sea snail shells, approximately 100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest known examples of jewellery. Beadwork...

s.